Sanctuary Asia - April 2018

Sanctuary | Conservation Action

“But in the modern world

there is no time,” wrote Rachel Carson

in her seminal book Silent Spring. She

wrote of time as the essential element

that allows life to adapt to change and

reach equilibrium. While her book speaks

of the hazards of chemical fertilisers,

her lament holds true for the current

onslaught launched on India’s wildlife by

its rapidly-advancing road network. At a

construction pace of 22 km. a day, and

thousands of kilometres cutting through

designated Protected Areas (PAs), the

country’s highways are giving its wildlife

neither chance nor choice.

Apart from the 24,000 km. of roads

that pass through PAs, over 1,200

passenger and freight trains run on

railway lines that slither across these

prime wildlife habitats, imperiling India’s

endangered wildlife indiscriminately.

Figure this — roads and railways have

snuff ed out 16 tigers in the last fi ve

years; over 150 elephants have been

killed by speeding trains in the last

eight years. In a short span of 63 days

between December 2017 and February

2018, trains have killed 10 elephants in

the state of Assam alone!

The numbers present a situation

of exigency; one that can force a

wildlife biologist to make appeals to

the public. “The scale of this problem

we have rapid and continuous access

to data on wildlife movement and

mortality along these roads, we will

not be able to suggest mitigation

measures before or at the planning

stages of these projects. A

conservation budget for mitigation

measures must be a part of project

planning at the blueprint stage,”

is huge, and the damage being infl icted

is irreversible,” says Milind Pariwakam,

a wildlife biologist working with the

Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT).

“Small research teams can at best

monitor a few roads at a time. But

roads are being built everywhere; and

no matter how large an organisation

you are, it’s impossible to gather

information on all the animals that die

on our roads every day.” Pariwakam

recently spearheaded the launch of

‘Roadkills’, a mobile-based application

to collect data on mortality of wild

animals on roads, railway lines and

irrigation canals across the country.

“We felt that the only way we could

tackle the problem was by engaging

concerned citizens; and that’s how

this citizen science project came into

being. The project is an attempt by

WCT to involve citizens in collecting

data that can be useful for researchers

and infrastructure planners across the

country in reducing wildlife mortality.

The data will help identify sensitive

locations where safe wildlife crossing

structures can be installed. The pace at

which new roads are being built close

to or inside critical wildlife habitats and

existing roads and railways lines being

expanded is very fast,” says Dr. Anish

Andheria, President of WCT. “Unless

FACING PAGE This lifeless Indian fox vixen will never be reunited with her pups. She died crossing

a road with relatively little traffi c, which connects and passes through the corridor between

Pench and Kanha Tiger Reserves.

BELOW A screenshot of an easy-to-fi ll digital form on the Roadkills app designed by the

Wildlife Conservation Trust. The eff ectiveness of this unique citizen science initiative is directly

proportional to the number of active users, so Sanctuary readers are urged to be a part of the

solution by downloading the app.

COURTESY: WCT