Elephants, alongside tigers and leopards, have escaped after severe floods in India inundated two renowned wildlife sanctuaries in West Bengal, state officials reported on Wednesday.
Since October 3, at least 36 people have perished due to floods and landslides across the state, with relentless rains destroying homes, tea plantations, and rendering roads unusable.
The flooding also engulfed significant portions of Gorumara and Jaldapara national parks, protected areas in the Himalayan foothills home to elephants, bison, tigers, and the rare one-horned rhinoceros.
“The two wildlife sanctuaries have been flooded, causing animals to wander out,” said Birbaha Hansda, West Bengal’s forest minister, to AFP.
“A group of 30 elephants was seen running through the water, trumpeting loudly. We are unsure how many will survive,” she expressed.
A leopard was observed “navigating rough waters,” she noted, but hasn’t been spotted since.
Not all animals managed to escape.
“Dead animal bodies are now appearing on riverbanks,” she mentioned, identifying two leopards, a rhino, and several bison and deer among the deceased.
Some rescues were successful.
“Two captive elephants were used to rescue an adult rhino and two elephant calves trapped on a riverbank,” she added.
India’s one-horned Asian rhino population has nearly tripled over the past 40 years due to conservation and anti-poaching measures, rising from 1,500 to over 4,000 today.
