#HIGHWAY UNDERPASS WILDLIFE FULL#

After studies showed 30 spots along the 160km stretch of the East-West Highway between Narayanghat and Butwal that wild animals frequent, the Department is constructing four more underpasses and one overpass. Manoj Aryal at the Department of Roads says the Chitwan study has shown that underpasses are effective in reducing wildlife deaths.

#HIGHWAY UNDERPASS WILDLIFE FULL#

“It seems the underpasses are not being used to their full extent because they are too small for large animals like wild elephants, and also because of the litter from the highway some of the underpasses have become constricted so bigger wildlife cannot easily pass through,” explains Padma Raj Nepal of the Division Forest Office in Chitwan. Most of the wildlife using underpasses were deer, wild boar and other medium-sized animals, and only 10% of the animals were large mammals like tigers, leopards and rhinos. Only a quarter of the movement was during the monsoon months, while the pre-monsoon dry season saw the least movement. He adds: “Our research proves that underpasses are effective in facilitating safer wildlife movement, and we need to replicate this in other critical jungle corridors in the Tarai.” The WWF’s Pramod Neupane says the use of underpasses will increase as animals get more familiar with the structures. The WWF monitoring of the underpasses after the Narayanghat-Mugling Highway was upgraded from August 2017 till June 2018 shows that more than half of the animal movement occurred in winter when wildlife moved to sources of water. “With such massive new investment in large infrastructure project, the impact on biodiversity and wildlife will be heavy, and we need mitigation measures such as underpasses and overpasses not only to save wildlife but also for human safety,” says WWF Nepal Representative Ghana Gurung. However, conservationists say the number could be much higher if highways through unprotected forests are also counted. In some years this was up to a third of the total number of recorded wildlife deaths in national parks. There were 119 animals run over by vehicles in national parks in 2018/19, down from 124 in 2017/18 and 133 in 2016/17. Trespassing into Nature, Bhrikuti Rai, and Sunir PandeyĪccording to the Department of National Parks and Wildlife conservation, the road kill problem is getting worse. In conversation, Nepal is not out of the woods yet, Sonia Awale The WWF has now released its findings from the study, and concludes: ‘Wildlife crossing structures are essential for all linear infrastructure projects traversing critical forests, incorporating designs based on international practice and available guidelines in all planned projects seem imperative in the future.’

The underpasses were also equipped with 14 camera traps by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and its ‘Hariyo Ban Program’ to better understand wildlife migration in the Barandabhar Forest Corridor and to monitor whether the underpasses are effective. The highway features the first two of Nepal’s four new wildlife underpasses in the Aptarai and Ramnagar in the section where the road passes through an important animal migration corridor.

The 30km Narayanghat-Mugling Highway was recently improved to meet Asian highway standards, and this meant not only did it have to ensure adequate road safety features but also address conservation needs. In the past three years alone there have been 400 road kills involving wild animals. Nepal’s conservation success story means that there is now more wildlife movement between national parks, while upgraded highways have increased the number of vehicles and their speed.

Another 122km stretch of roads cross wildlife corridors connecting protected areas, as well as linking Tarai forests with the mountains to facilitate wildlife migration. Of the 1,028km East-West Highway, nearly 400km slice through national parks in Parsa, Chitwan, Bardia, Banke. Now, Nepal is building more underpasses so animals do not have to risk crossing highways. Photo: WWFĬutting through the dense jungles of the Tarai national parks, the East-West Highway is turning into a death trap for Nepal’s endangered and protected wildlife. Wild elephants crossing the East-West Highway in Bardia National Park recently.

Highway underpass wildlife