8/30/2023 0 Comments Highway underpass wildlife![]() Wildlife-friendly linear infrastructures is gradually getting recognised by engineers in Nepal as a solution-oriented approach in conservation. Wildlife overpass constructed over the main canal of Sikta Irrigation Project especially for flash floods, Nepal. The Mahakali III Irrigation project that directly fragments Shuklaphanta National Park's core area now has incorporated six bridges to allow even the passage of elephant herds. More such structures have been built recently with village road bridges to reduce wildlife drowning, especially in biodiversity hotspot areas. Flash flood crossing zones constructed over Sikta Irrigation Project's main canals, for instance, act as wildlife overpasses and facilitate migration in the Kamdi Corridor which connects Nepal's Banke National Park to India's Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary. Other infrastructure like railways, transmission lines, and irrigation canals also require consideration since they are such obstacles to animal movement. These arboreal bridges are not only cost-effective but highly scalable in locations where highways traverse dense forests. Afterward, the crossings were found to be used by Rhesus macaque, Tarai gray langur, Asian palm civet among others. The Banke National Park piloted six canopy crossings for arboreal animals along the busy East-West Highway in collaboration with Hariyo Ban Program II. These structures were functional also because waterholes were in close proximity and fences installed 2km along the roadside helped to funnel wildlife through the desired path. A National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) study reported 7 wildlife species from a 15-days camera trap monitoring study.ĭespite the dimensions, the underpasses seem to have served their preliminary purpose of habitat connectivity. ![]() When evaluated separately by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Nepal under Hariyo Ban Program for an intermittent one-month spell thrice in a year, 15 animals were spotted using the tunnels. Every two consecutive underpasses were spaced 50m apart and all of them with dimensions, 4 m wide and 5.5 m in height. The Department of Roads (DoR) piloted four underpasses across Narayangad-Muglin Highway, two in Ramnagar and the other two in the Aaptari stretch of Barandabhar Corridor Forest. ![]() Wildlife underpass at Narayangadh-Muglin Highway, Nepal. Nepal has started taking baby steps in developing wildlife-friendly linear infrastructures - a cross-ministerial approach contributing to natural resources safeguards. Wildlife corridors across infrastructure need to be designed carefully so that they minimise road carnage, and not result in collateral damage. Conservationists have come a long way since then, and have learnt from their mistakes. The luckier ones were eaten by hungry birds that quickly learned that the tunnel was a free meal takeaway. When the city of Davis in California retrofitted a toad tunnel underneath a newly constructed six-lane highway in 1995, instead of protecting local toad and frog populations, they ended up killing them because the heat from lights meant to attract frogs killed them. Read also: Underpasses to reduce roadkill in Nepal, Tufan Neupane However, much like the haphazard construction of new roads in Nepal, unscientific infrastructure meant to aid wildlife can in fact adversely affect them, sometimes even decimate the last few remaining populations of endangered species. Underpasses and crossings, for instance, have been shown to ease the free movement of large and small mammals, further decreasing the chance that they are hit by speeding trucks and buses. Many of Nepal’s new infrastructure like highways, railways, irrigation canals and transmission lines crisscross natural habitats and jungle corridors. But infrastructure need not necessarily be a bad word for conservation – there can also be wildlife-friendly infrastructure. There were even more hit-and-run fatalities of animals outside protected areas, even though vehicular flow fell during the five months of Covid-19 lockdown. Nepal’s highways saw 108 roadkills of endangered wildlife last year. Vehicular and wildlife crossings ongoing construction at East-West electrified railway lines near Bardibas, Nepal.
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