About Road Kills
Post date: Apr 18, 2013 6:53:38 AM
In 2011, India had a road network of over 4.32 million kilometers. Some of which ply via the protected areas - that forms a mere 5% of India's total geographical land area.
Research has shown how roads cause habitat fragmentation, restricts animal movements and the most visually striking threat - Road Kills.
What is a road kill?
Roads cutting through national parks and wildlife sanctuaries cause deforestation and habitat fragmentation. The resulting traffic from these roads have been known to change the behaviour of animals by restricting their movement. The most visually striking threat caused by the roads plying through the wildlife habitats are Road Kills. When an endangered species is run over by the vehicle and dies , the cause of death is called road kill.
What kind of species usually get road killed?
Animals that are attracted to the road surface, or to the roadsides to exploit food sources, tend to be the species most frequently killed. Such species include reptiles that are drawn to sun-warmed asphalt, herbivores such as deer grazing on roadside grasses, and predators attracted to roads to feed on carcasses of earlier accident victims. Animals that regularly cross roads as part of their movements between different habitats are also likely victims. With high speed traffic, bird mortality on the road is also on the high.
What are the consequences of a road kill?
When an important individual of a species is killed it causes several indirect effects on the population. For example if a female tiger is killed, it might have cubs that will die of starvation, or death of dominant males will have a serious impact on the population. Other males trying to take over the territory will kill all the cubs sired by the previous dominant male so that females would come into estrus again. So there are several indirect impacts on animals as a consequence of road accidents.
Are there any studies to confirm this?
A recent scientific paper published by Gubbi et al (2012) compared large mammal encounter rates on two segments (one segment closed to vehicular traffic altogether and another closed to night time vehicular traffic) on the NH 212 highway. The study showed higher encounter rates of large mammals in the segment closed for vehicular traffic emphasizing that the linear obstructions such as roads altered the behaviour of the large mammal movement.
What aids road kill?
Vehicles today travel at high speeds and this combined with poor eyesight and slow response time of animals results in the death of innumerable wildlife.
What can we do to avoid this?
It is extremely important that travellers drive their vehicle at low speed and with utmost caution while driving through forests. Implementation of speed calming measures such as road humps, rumble strips and chicanes at crucial locations are equally important. Whenever there are alternatives roads available, they have to be realigned outside the protected areas.