Highway woes: human-animal battles

NH 766! It is a national highway in India that cuts through a forest reserve. It’s a bone of contention between two states — Kerala and Karnataka. It’s a highway that connects the two states and slices through the environmentally sensitive region of Bandipur Tiger Reserve.

For Kerala, it’s a highway that links the pristine Wayanad district, which is accessible only by road. Kerala claims many livelihoods are at stake and wants the night traffic ban on NH 766 to be lifted. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu support the ban on traffic from 9 pm to 6 am in a sensitive reserve that is home to tigers and elephants.

The 34.6 km of the 272 km long NH 766 passes through the Bandipur and Wayanad national parks. The rise in the roadkills of wild animals reported here led to the night ban in 2009.

Conservationists and environmentalists argue that linear intrusions like highways negatively impact the forest ecology and the fauna. About 19.7 km of this highway, which stretches to a total of 272 km, slices through the core of the Bandipur Tiger Reserve, which, according to wildlife experts and conservationists, is a critical tiger habitat and an important migration path for large mammals in the reserve. In Wayanad, the road passes through 4.8 km of the core zone and 5.8 km of the buffer zone of the Wayanad wildlife sanctuary.

This ban on night-time traffic has been in force for 10 years. But the Supreme Court in its judgement on August 7 on a petition filed by Kerala challenging the night traffic ban on the road asked the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to file an affidavit with suggestions on how to improve the features of NH-275 and state highway-90 — the route considered as an alternative to NH 766 – so that the possibility of closing down the highway in the long run could be considered.

Kerala had risen in protest, as many feared this could lead to a ban on daytime travel as well. The past month has seen demonstrations and indefinite fasts in the hilly Kerala district with Rahul Gandhi, as its Member of Parliament, making his voice heard as well.

Locals groups want the night ban on the highway lifted, citing hardships to livelihood such as transporting vegetables and essentials between a town called Sulthan Bathery and the markets of Mysore. The route considered as an alternative now bypasses many key commercial locations in Wayanad and would require extra travel for Wayanad vehicles.

A study conducted by the Kerala Forest Research Institute in 2014 on the validity of the night traffic ban on NH 766, concluded that the ban was causing a lot of distress and economic loss to the stakeholders. It stated that the farming community in both Wayanad and Gundlupet, especially was facing a lot of hardship.

The study proposed that a convoy system be introduced on this highway during the night so that the interests of both the wildlife as well as the people could be protected.

Other suggestions included a traffic ban on the road for an hour between 6 and 7 in the mornings and evenings when the wildlife movement on the road is at its peak; limiting the number of vehicles at night to 50 and limiting the speed of vehicles at night.

The Environment Ministry decided to appoint an expert committee to study the issue in-depth and submit a report to the Supreme Court. The report of the committee, made after holding discussions with the stakeholders, field visits and inspection of records, concluded that, “The prevailing situation does not warrant any changes.” The committee also noted that the night traffic ban was especially important considering the fact that animals like elephants, tigers, gaurs, etc., had behaviourally adjusted to it.

But there is a shocker! There has been a 300% increase in tiger attacks from 2015-16. These findings were highlighted in the Kerala forest statistics report (2018) brought out by the forest department. In 2017-18, 21 people were killed by wild elephants while tiger attacks claimed 12 lives. A total of 7,229 man-animal conflicts were reported in Kerala during that period according to the report.

There have been many linear intrusions into other wildlife habitats as well — for example, the litigation over Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand or the Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra. While animal mortalities are a burning issue, the dangers of habitat fragmentation also cannot be ignored.