Wildlife road kills continue to haunt the stretch of Amrabad Tiger Reserve on the way to Srisailam temple, with the number showing alarming rise year on year.
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As gathered from the data collated by the Forest officials, the stretch records one death every four days, of wild fauna coming under the wheels of devotees burning rubber to reach the holy spot.
The department has been collecting and aggregating the the data of the road kills on the stretch passing through Amrabad Tiger Reserve from 2017. According to the records, the number of animals, birds, reptiles, and other fauna killed by vehicles speeding on the national highway has reached 484 by the end of October last year.
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And the numbers show alarming rise every year. The road kills, which constituted only 3.1% of the total kills in 2017, have reached close to 40% by 2022. In absolute numbers, the number has grown from 15 in 2017, to 198 in 2021 and to 188 in 2022 up to October. The data is recorded by forest range officers through a proforma, and aggregated at the end of six months.
During the five years, the foresters counted as many as 86 species which have been killed on the stretch of 60 kilometres passing through the tiger reserve alone. Of these, the highest number is that of reptiles, at 256, followed by primates at 78, mammals at 67, birds at 49, insects at 15, rodents at 10 and amphibians at 9.
As always, Rhesus macaque is the most frequent casualty, at 40 deaths. Unfortunately, the deaths are attributable to the monkey rescue operations carried out to remove them from urban areas and leave them out in forests. Unable to fend for themselves in the woods, the simians hang around on the roadside looking for easy food handed out by the devotees, and in the bargain getting killed under the vehicles.
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Bonnet macaques and Common Trinket snakes, at 23 each, are the next highest casualty, while Bengal monitor lizards, checkered keelback, garden lizard, green keelback, Indian chameleon, Indian rat snake, red sand boa, Russell’s viper, common langur, small Indian civet, and three striped palm squirrel all recorded deaths in double digits.
More than half the deaths among reptiles were recorded during the rainy season, probably due to their habit to seek heat on the roads for thermoregulation, the report says.
“The kills have spiralled after re-carpeting of the road, as it has increased the vehicular speeds. We have written to the National Highways about the same, and our constant appeals for mitigation measures have finally yielded results. They have agreed to install speed breakers at crucial points on the stretch where the wild animals usually cross over. They have also agreed to grant funds to set up signages indicating the speed limit of 30 kilometres per hour,” informed the District Forest Officer, Nagarkurnool, Rohith Gopidi