Along one of the slopes that have been excavated vertically by the State Highways Department on the stretch between Ketti Palada and Kattery in the Nilgiris, a herd of Indian gaur watch tentatively from a tea estate that they inhabit. The recent work undertaken to expand the road to Udhagamandalam, as part of the government’s “third road” to the town, has severed contiguity for native wildlife, with animals unable to descend from the vertically cut slopes and down to the Kattery stream, which they depend on for water.
Home to not just Indian gaur, the Ketti valley, where the road is being constructed, also hosts Indian spotted chevrotains, sloth bears, porcupines, Sambar deer, barking deer, leopards and a variety of endemic amphibians and reptiles. The State Highways Department has begun expanding the already adequate and well-maintained road, measuring about five meters in width, to make it more than four times its current size, officials said, with ₹40 crore being sanctioned for the project.
The project aims to ensure better traffic flow from Mettupalayam to Udhagamandalam, by allowing vehicles using the road from Kattery to Udhagamandalam via Lovedale to bypass Coonoor town. The road expansion work is being undertaken throughout the more than 20.5 kilometre stretch, with the road between Kattery Dam and Ketti Palada being the most affected so far.
R. Hariharan, a local resident of Ketti Palada, said that previously, wildlife would descend from the slopes onto the road and cross over to the Kattery stream in search of food and water. “Now the animals cannot get to these places because the slopes have been cut vertically, with some slopes now sheer cliffs, measuring well over 40 feet,” he said.
N. Mohanraj, a Nilgiris-based conservationist said the project inhibited the ability of wildlife to move between different habitats, but also would not solve the traffic problems that affect the movement of vehicles from Mettupalayam to Udhagamandalam. “Vehicles will use both roads: between Kattery and Udhagamandalam and between Coonoor and Udhagamandalam and come to a standstill outside Udhagamandalam town as the roads leading into the town are narrow and cannot be expanded,” he said. He also said that due to the vertical cutting of the slopes, landslips will become more common, endangering local communities as well as tourists.
Shobana Chandrashekar, founder of the Make Ooty Beautiful (MOB) Project, said that such road expansions were a disaster waiting to happen. “Instead of planning to reduce the tourist footprint which is already negatively impacting the Nilgiris, the government continues to push ahead with this unsustainable model of development,” she said. She said there were few places in the world, like the Nilgiris, which is a biodiversity hotspot that needs to be preserved. “Instead, the government, which is the biggest threat to the environment due to sanctioning mega projects which destroy huge expanses of the few green spaces left, continues to push for more infrastructure and more tourists to visit at the cost of our biodiversity and wildlife.”
Road expansions along the Mettupalayam to Coonoor Road have already severely impacted the movement of elephants, conservationists said, pointing to the Madras High Court taking note of the impediments to the movement of wildlife. A senior Forest Department official said that they were powerless to stop the road expansion work as the slopes being cut using earthmovers are on revenue land or on private pattas. “We have demarcated forest areas that the the Highways Department cannot alter. However, we cannot intervene if the land does not fall under our control,” said the official.
