KAZIRANGA, Aug 4 - Heavy siltation of wetlands and natural water bodies caused by seasonal floods in Kaziranga National Park has been a cause of serious concern for wildlife activists as it makes the depth of the wetlands, beels or lakes shallow.
Water bodies or beels having a certain depth is vital for survival of some avifauna which always prefer to catch their prey( fishes) from a certain height. But excessive siltation has already reduced the depth of those beels or lakes and in some cases siltation has filled the wetlands or water bodies, which therefore do not exist any more.
Talking to this correspondent, Mubina Akhtar, secretary of Kaziranga Wildlife Society said that it was important on the part of the Forest Department to carry out desiltation inside the Kaziranga National Park in order to maintain the depth of the water bodies or wetlands which have been badly affected by perennial siltation under normal circumstances.
She said if desiltation is not done in a scientific manner, then the natural ambience of Kaziranga National Park would suffer a negative impact, adding that most migratory species like avians would refrain from visiting the park if the wetlands are allowed to be adversely affected by siltation.
Akhtar observed that due to excessive siltation inside the wetlands of Kaziranga National Park, the water level in most of the water bodies, beels or wetlands have increased to a certain height and during the annual floods it causes inundation of some pockets within the park.
Clarifying the position on any kind of de siltation operation within the Kaziranga forest, Divisional Forest Officer of Eastern Assam Wildlife Division (Kaziranga), Ramesh Gogoi said the desiltation process itself is an artificial way of creating a depth in wetlands or water bodies which may disturb the natural ecosystem of a particular wetland, beel or waterbodies. This might even adversely affect the survival of micro organisms and thereby impact the environment.
Gogoi said it was still not clear whether any avifauna would prefer to remain in those wetlands or water bodies if desiltation was done.
Gogoi said in a park like Kaziranga, which had so many water bodies or wetlands, desiltation operation, if undertaken, would be a vast exercise and require a sizeable amount of finance in order to create artificial depth.
