Five conservationists from Coimbatore, who had embarked on a cross-country road trip on February 8, 2016, to understand and identify where and why road kills happen, have found that at least one wild animal is killed daily by a speeding vehicle on Indian highways. They sighted 54 road kills during their 42-day trip. They also found that highways in the south were much safer for animals than those in the north.
R Mohammed Saleem, V Saanthakumar, H Byju, C V Prasath and N Velmurugan have created 200 ambassadors for their campaign named - PATH (Provide Animals safe Transit on Highways). The group, which visited three bio-diversity hotspots in the country - the Western Ghats, eastern Himalayan region and the Indo-Burma region, journeying through 22 states and covering a distance of 20,000km, returned to the city on Tuesday. Of the three hotspots, they found the Western Ghats recorded the least number of road kills.
The conservationists are planning to write a book on their journey, findings and recommendations. "We are still curating the data and would publish the exact numbers in our book soon," said Mohammed Saleem of Environmental Conservation Group (ECG), an NGO and the team leader for this project. The maximum number of road kills were recorded in Rajasthan, Gujarat and West Bengal. They visited 32 wildlife sanctuaries, parks and forests, 13 colleges and 27 schools.
Every road kill was recorded with GPS coordinates, images, videos, time and details of the animals. "We plan to submit our findings to various policy makers so that the concerned departments could coordinate to ensure road kills are curbed," said Mohammed Saleem. During their journey, they observed that speeding, especially at night, faulty engineering while laying roads and trains passing through forests are the major causes of road kills. Low flying birds like egrets are often killed on roads connecting water bodies, they found. Lack of sign boards and speed breakers in areas where animals crossed also led to road kills.
"We were surprised to find that the dry stretch between Gujarat and Rajasthan had the maximum number of road kills. The animals might have strayed out of the forest in search of water," said Mohammed. "Mammals like mongoose, jackals, giant squirrels and wild cats are the common victims.
They did not see a single road kill in Sikkim. They believe that since the local tribals are stakeholders of the forests and sanctuaries, they ensure that the public followed the rules. "We interacted with the locals, students and forest officials in Sikkim and learned that the tribals were deployed at the ticket counters, acted as guides and focused on the maintenance of forests. This ensured that outsiders were restricted and rules were being strictly followed," said H Byju, a wildlife conservationist. "Some other initiatives such as the canopy bridges in Valparai set up with used hose pipes and bamboo bridges in Sikkim for monkey crossings could be replicated in other forests as well. These were set up over the highway roads," he added.
"We spoke to forest officials, school and college students, truck drivers and locals running shops on highways to create awareness about road kills. Most of them said they have spotted dead animals on the road," said Saleem. They have pledged to record every road kill and enter the details on their website which would help the conservationists to maintain nation-wide statistics on the subject.
R Mohammed Saleem, V Saanthakumar, H Byju, C V Prasath and N Velmurugan have created 200 ambassadors for their campaign named - PATH (Provide Animals safe Transit on Highways). The group, which visited three bio-diversity hotspots in the country - the Western Ghats, eastern Himalayan region and the Indo-Burma region, journeying through 22 states and covering a distance of 20,000km, returned to the city on Tuesday. Of the three hotspots, they found the Western Ghats recorded the least number of road kills.
The conservationists are planning to write a book on their journey, findings and recommendations. "We are still curating the data and would publish the exact numbers in our book soon," said Mohammed Saleem of Environmental Conservation Group (ECG), an NGO and the team leader for this project. The maximum number of road kills were recorded in Rajasthan, Gujarat and West Bengal. They visited 32 wildlife sanctuaries, parks and forests, 13 colleges and 27 schools.
Every road kill was recorded with GPS coordinates, images, videos, time and details of the animals. "We plan to submit our findings to various policy makers so that the concerned departments could coordinate to ensure road kills are curbed," said Mohammed Saleem. During their journey, they observed that speeding, especially at night, faulty engineering while laying roads and trains passing through forests are the major causes of road kills. Low flying birds like egrets are often killed on roads connecting water bodies, they found. Lack of sign boards and speed breakers in areas where animals crossed also led to road kills.
"We were surprised to find that the dry stretch between Gujarat and Rajasthan had the maximum number of road kills. The animals might have strayed out of the forest in search of water," said Mohammed. "Mammals like mongoose, jackals, giant squirrels and wild cats are the common victims.
They did not see a single road kill in Sikkim. They believe that since the local tribals are stakeholders of the forests and sanctuaries, they ensure that the public followed the rules. "We interacted with the locals, students and forest officials in Sikkim and learned that the tribals were deployed at the ticket counters, acted as guides and focused on the maintenance of forests. This ensured that outsiders were restricted and rules were being strictly followed," said H Byju, a wildlife conservationist. "Some other initiatives such as the canopy bridges in Valparai set up with used hose pipes and bamboo bridges in Sikkim for monkey crossings could be replicated in other forests as well. These were set up over the highway roads," he added.
"We spoke to forest officials, school and college students, truck drivers and locals running shops on highways to create awareness about road kills. Most of them said they have spotted dead animals on the road," said Saleem. They have pledged to record every road kill and enter the details on their website which would help the conservationists to maintain nation-wide statistics on the subject.