Monkeys continue to meet with accidents on Mumbai-Goa highway

A monkey from the Karnala bird sanctuary suffered severe injuries after it was hit by a vehicle on the Mumbai- Goa highway on August 21.

Despite the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) building a ladder type bridge for monkeys to cross the Mumbai-Goa highway at the Karnala bird sanctuary stretch, there is no end to monkeys meeting with accidents here. Forest officials say monkeys continue to gather at the highway, lured by food offered by some motorists. They also estimate that at least four monkey ladders and road rumblers were needed on the 2 km stretch passing through the park to contain the problem.

Officials said speeding vehicles were another reason for monkeys meeting with accidents on this stretch near the bird sanctuary. (HT PHOTO)

A monkey from the Karnala bird sanctuary suffered severe injuries after it was hit by a vehicle on the highway on August 21. The animals in the sanctuary, located around 10 km from Panvel city, often go to the jungle on the other side by crossing the highway. Keeping this in mind, NHAI installed a ladder across the highway for the monkeys in July.

“While writing to NHAI, we did not mention the number of ladders required in the area, assuming they will conduct surveys and decide the numbers on their own. However, they installed only one ladder near the entrance of the sanctuary and hence monkeys in other areas of the park are still crossing the highway like earlier,” a forest official said.

The official said that speeding vehicles were another reason for the accidents on this stretch. “In an effort to ensure that vehicles do not go fast in this area, we have written three letters to NHAI requesting them to put rumblers on the stretch. However, they have not done anything in that regard so far,” he said.

Prashant Fegade, project director of NHAI (Panvel division) said, “We developed the monkey ladder near the sanctuary after requests from the forest department. But, I don’t know anything about the requests made for rumblers. If we receive requests from them for rumblers or some more monkey ladders, we will think it over.”