India floods increase poaching risks for rhinos

Officials in northeastern India are on alert for poachers after surging flood waters forced endangered rhinos, Asiatic elephants, a variety of deer and other animals to leave a game reserve.

At least 29 people have been killed in the past week's flooding and more than a million others have been displaced from their homes.

The director of Assam's Kaziranga National Park, S. K. Bora, said Saturday that three one-horned rhinoceros have died from drowning and several dozen deer have been killed by the floods or vehicles on a highway. The park is 225 kilometers (135 miles) from the state capital, Gauhati.

More than 2,000 of the estimated 3,000 one-horn rhinos left in the wild live in the 430-square-kilometer park.