After 4 years, wildlife department moves proposal to build animal underpasses on NH-48, Ggm-F’bad Road

The district wildlife office has moved a proposal to build animal underpasses (AUPs), erect signboards and adopt speed calming measures on two major highways in

The district wildlife office has moved a proposal to build animal underpasses (AUPs), erect signboards and adopt speed calming measures on two major highways in the region—the Gurugram-Faridabad Road and National Highway-48 in Manesar. Official letters to this effect were sent by the Gurugram district wildlife officer to the Public Works Department (PWD) and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on February 24.

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Both the agencies confirmed receiving the letters.

Addressing the NHAI, district wildlife officer R Dangi pointed out that the Aravalli forest, surrounding the National Security Guard outpost in Manesar, is rich in wildlife and four leopard deaths have taken place on the nearby Jaipur-Manesar Road (NH48) in recent years. “At the time of constructing the toll road, no facilities were considered for the significant wildlife population in the region thus endangering the lives of animals crossing the highway,” states the letter, a copy of which is with the HT.

A second letter addressed to the PWD states that the Gurugram-Faridabad Road (a state highway) passes through an important wildlife corridor between Asola Bhatti in Delhi and Sariska in Rajasthan.

Both letters called for the construction of animal underpasses in “identified places”, installation of speed breakers in “accident-prone areas” and “display or signboards regarding speed control in wildlife-rich areas.”

Dangi said, “The proposal has been pending for some time. Given the rise in the number of man-animal conflict cases recently, we are attempting to reopen talks with the concerned agencies. We have written to the PWD and NHAI and are awaiting their responses.”

However, PWD executive engineer Sandeep Singh said, “During the initial discussion, we were told that the wildlife department wants to implement some measures to protect wildlife. The letter we have received, however, suggests that we need to bear the cost of the exercise. We have sent the proposal to Reliance Infra, the project’s concessionaire, and will update the wildlife office with their response.”

On January 29 this year, activists had written to the state wildlife department seeking revision in speed limit and installation of speed breakers on NH48, NH248 and the Gurgaon-Faridabad Road. Activists had sought to “impose speed restrictions of 40km-50km in these leopard and wildlife habitats to avoid any further deaths.” They also called for the installation of speed breakers as an interim measure and proposed that AUPs be built as a long-term solution in line with the environment ministry’s guidelines for building linear intrusions in eco-sensitive habitats.

Since 2004, at least eight leopards, one nilgai and three golden jackals have been killed on these two highways. The last leopard casualty occurred in October last year when a 1.5-year-old female leopard was killed by a truck on NH48, in Manesar.

In January 2019, a female leopard was killed in a similar manner on the Gurugram-Faridabad road. The spot was close to where a similar accident took place in 2015. Just last month, a jackal’s corpse was found just off the Gurugram-Faridabad Road near the Bandhwari landfill, which wildlife officials attributed to a road accident.

While talks of installing AUPs were floated in 2016 as well, in March 2019 the district wildlife office, in a reply to an RTI request by Gurugram-based environmentalist Vaishali Rana Chandra, had said there were no such plans in the pipeline.

However, DWLO Dangi said solutions to mitigate wildlife deaths have been on the cards since late last year. As per the letter sent to the NHAI and PWD, two underpasses are set to be constructed near the NSG outpost in Manesar, and a third near Pali village on the Gurgaon-Faridabad road. A fourth AUP has also been proposed to be built across the Kosli-Kanina road which bisects the Nahar wildlife sanctuary in Rewari. This proposal, too, had first been floated in 2016, but subsequently failed to take off.

In addition to AUPs, the wildlife department has also identified five locations on the Gurgaon-Faridabad Road for rumble strips; two would be installed on NH48 in Manesar.

“We are going to float tenders for desilting an existing underpass in Sehrawan. Though not meant for wildlife, it can be used by wild animals once the path has been cleared,” Dangi said.

Ashok Sharma, the NHAI’s project manager in Gurugram, did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday.

Even as government agencies look for ways to implement short- and long-term measures to safeguard wildlife in pockets of Aravallis affected by highways, an animal census and an ecological study of leopards and hyenas have been gathering dust for 1.5 years as the state government is yet to allocate funds.

The ecological study is meant to address the subject of man-animal conflict.