Dip in eastern swamp deer population in Kaziranga
The Hindu
On the brighter side, the animal has dispersed to protected areas beyond the best-known address of the one-horned rhino on earth, officials said
The population of the vulnerable eastern swamp deer, extinct elsewhere in South Asia, has dipped in the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve.
Officials attributed the decrease from 907 individuals in 2018 to 868 during the Eastern Swamp Deer Estimation on January 10 and 11 to two high floods in 2019 and 2020. On the brighter side, they said the animal is now distributed to areas beyond the park known as the world’s best address of the one-horned rhinoceros.
“The eastern swamp deer is endemic to Kaziranga and is not the primary prey of the park’s carnivores, primarily the tiger. But its population is crucial for the ecological health of the tiger reserve and the encouraging sign is the animal has now moved to other areas such as Orang National Park and Laokhowa-Burachapori wildlife sanctuaries,” Kaziranga’s field director P. Sivakumar told The Hindu.