Samruddhi Mahamarg’s first casualties: langur and blackbuck

Three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Phase I of the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg between Nagpur and Shirdi, a blackbuck and grey langur, as well as a few stray dogs, died on the stretch. The 520-km-long section of the expressway was opened on Sunday, and the remaining portion, between Shirdi and Mumbai, is expected to be operational in less than a year.

Following the opening of the expressway, a video of a blackbuck reportedly running on the road near Vaijapur in Aurangabad district went viral. Pictures of a dead blackbuck lying on the side of the highway median and a grey langur allegedly killed by a speeding vehicle are also doing the rounds on social media. It has also been claimed that around five stray dogs have been killed on the road.

Time and again, authorities have been claiming that the 701-km-long expressway has been planned in such a way that it poses no threat to wildlife. In total, there are nine green overpasses and 17 underpasses to be used by wild animals.

The dead blackbuck that was found on the expressway

In the past, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has also claimed that in order to minimise accidents and prevent animals from entering the highway corridor, it has prohibited the planting of 13 varieties of fruit trees that attract wildlife.

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Wildlife conservationist Kedar Gore, director of the Corbett Foundation, feels that mitigation measures, if any, are inadequate. "Either new underpasses have to be done on selected stretches where such wildlife movement is observed or tall fences have to be put up, preventing animals from jumping over and crossing the highway and leaving only the stretches where designated underpasses exist or would be created."

According to Gore, for macaques and langurs, strict surveillance must be undertaken to prevent motorists from feeding them and throwing morsels that could attract wild animals to the highway. "But despite all efforts, it would be impossible to completely prevent wild animal mortalities," Gore said.

Honorary Wildlife Warden of Thane Pawan Sharma, who is also the president of NGO RAWW, said, "Animals do not understand man-made boundaries, and, thus, any project that cuts through wildlife habitats will have a negative impact somewhere or the other, irrespective of whether mitigating measures are taken."

He added that to ensure that roadkill does not happen, the engineering teams that have designed the project need to ensure that the animals do not have alternative routes to pass through without using the overpass, underpass, culverts and other entry exits. "This is very difficult as animals are not supposed to follow rules like us. Thus, we can't expect a passage made for a tiger not to be used by a python, and one made for elephants not to be used by monkeys," Sharma stated.

Sarosh Lodhi, co-founder of the wildlife group CLaW and a conservation photographer, said, "The number of animal fatalities on highways just keeps rising with the opening of newer roads. This clearly indicates that the mitigation measures are proving to be inadequate or wrongly planned."