Bihar Floods: Five Rhinos From Nepal Land up in India, Rescuers Scramble to Save Animals

Locals try to rescue a wild animal from the floodwaters in Bihar

Patna: The devastating floods in Bihar have not only affected human beings but have also endangered the wildlife here as the animals have been escaping the jungles to save themselves.

Five rhinoceroses from Nepal have entered the Indian territory and were spotted by the residents of Bagha and Betia villages. Rescuers from Nepal are using elephants to search and rescue the missing animals. One of the rhinos was caught by wildlife officials in Betiah on Thursday.

Assistant warden of Chitwan National Park in Nepal, Narendra Arial said that the remaining four rhinos might have taken refuge on higher ground. They have requested the Indian authorities to help locate the missing animals.

Nepal is consistently releasing water from their dams which has further worsened the situation in Valmiki Tiger Reserve in West Champaran. Smaller animals that are afraid of drowning have been fleeing to residential areas exposing themselves to poachers.

Deputy forest officer, Valmiki Reserve, Amit Kumar has said that the forest areas on the Indian side is not suitable for rhino inhabitation and they would return the animals to Nepal.

However, hundreds of hog deer and barking deer from Valimiki Reserves that escaped the forest, were found on roads and villages as far as 100 kilometers away in Muzaffarpur district.

Five deer that were swept away by the raging waters of Gandak River in Motihari, were rescued by villagers of Ijra and Bhawanipur in Motihari, but one of them died on Thursday.

More than a 100 people have died in Bihar as 15 out of 38 districts in the state are facing floods that have displaced about five lakh people. NDRF, SDRF and the Army personnel have been deployed to expedite rescue and relief operations.