Kaziranga (Assam), Aug 24 - Authorities in Assam have enforced speed regulations on a highway along the famed Kaziranga National Park to prevent vehicles from hitting animals fleeing the sanctuary to escape a flood, officials said here Monday. Kaziranga is the world's largest sanctuary of the endangered one-horned rhino.

The officials said the order prohibiting people from driving their vehicles above 40 km per hour along the national highway that passes by the Kaziranga National Park in eastern Assam was enforced Sunday because scores of wild animals have started moving to highlands as the sanctuary is getting flooded.

'We have placed police and forest guards along the highway to restrict drivers from increasing their speed beyond a limit as animals from the park are crossing the highway,' park ranger Dharanidhar Boro told IANS.

In 2004, speeding trucks mowed down at least 50 animals while they were trying to cross the highway to escape floods.

In the past one week, flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains have displaced at least 300,000 people in Assam. The Brahmaputra river has been flowing above the danger mark in at least eight different places in the state.

'Floodwaters have entered some fringe areas inside the park. Already small herds of elephants have started moving out of the park by crossing the highway to take shelter in an adjoining hill,' Boro said.