The state government has established an expert committee to mitigate the impact of these linear projects.
The risk of wild animals dying due to accidents caused by speeding vehicles as the network of roads expands may soon reduce in Maharashtra.
The state government has established an expert committee to mitigate the impact of these linear projects. This committee will identify proposed road projects cutting through tiger corridors, study their impact on tiger dispersal and suggest mitigation measures.
The committee will be headed by the principal chief conservator of forests (head of forest force) and include eight more members including the principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife), representatives of the ministry of road transport and highways, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), state public works department (PWD), National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
Senior forest department officials said this followed a December 2018 order by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) which directed a review of road projects that disturbed tiger corridors. The state has to submit an action taken report to the tribunal by February 28.
Road kills by speeding vehicles have taken a toll on wildlife, leading to demands for mitigation measures like underpasses and overpasses being incorporated in the designs of road projects. In December 2017, Bajirao, the dominant male of the Bor tiger reserve died after being hit by a vehicle on the Nagpur- Amravati highway. In April 2018, a leopard was found dead on the same highway after being run over.
Projects for construction of new roads in the Vidarbha landscape, which has most of the 203 tigers recorded in Maharashtra, had led to fresh concerns. Similar concerns have been raised about other projects like irrigation canals and Greenfield and expansion of Brownfield railway lines. In January 2018, tiger 'Jaichand,' the offspring of Maharashtra's iconic tiger Jai, had a lucky escape he fell into the main canal of the Gosikhurd dam near Paoni in Bhandara.
EXPERT OPINION
- The state government has established an expert committee to mitigate the impact of linear projects
- The panel, to be headed by principal chief conservator of forests will identify proposed road projects cutting through tiger corridors, study their impact on tiger dispersal and suggest mitigation measures.
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