Between 2004 and 2007, more than 165 wild animals, some from endangered species like elephants, tigers, leopards etc, suffered an ignominious and brutal death due to speeding vehicles on the National Highways 212 and 67, that connects Kerala and Karnataka and passes through the Bandipur tiger reserve. 65% of these deaths were recorded during the night.
Night ban on traffic
As a consequence, the Karnataka government was compelled to act. It did so through its Chamarajanagar DC in June 2009. He imposed a night ban between 9 pm and 6am on vehicles plying through Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Subsequently, though the Karnataka Government withdrew the order, under political pressure from Kerala, the Karnataka high court, in its order on March 9, 2010, stayed the decision in a public interest litigation filed by a lawyer, L Srinivasa Rao. Police, ambulance and other emergency vehicles were exempted from the ban though.
Kerala exerts pressure
But the Kerala Govt. has been repeatedly requesting relaxation of the ban, because the development in the border sharing Kerala districts like Wayanad and Kannur commercial business and tourism has declined, and this economic downturn has in turn mounted pressure on the Kerala Chief Minister, Oomen Chandy to persuade his counterpart in Karnataka to reverse the decision.
Oomen Chandy, the Kerala chief minister was in Bengaluru on April 15th 2015, to meet with his Karnataka counterpart and request him to lift the ban at least partially, but after a patient hearing Karnataka on Wednesday diplomatically declined to accept Kerala’s appeal to lift or relax the night ban imposed on the grounds that the state cannot take an independent decision since the issue is pending before the Supreme Court.
Chandy during his meeting with his Karnataka counterpart, apprised the latter, about the importance of goods movement and how economic activity in Kerala has been affected following the ban. “It has become a question of life and death for many students, employees and traders in Kerala,” he added
Siddaramaiah did however say that he would hold talks with Karnataka forest officials and other experts in the field and examine Kerala’s request for relaxation of ban within two months.
In the memorandum submitted to his counterpart, Chandy has sought relaxation on the ban by 2 hours, because it caused great hardship for passengers travelling by road between Karnataka and Kerala, as they had to wait at the borders the whole night. Instead of imposing restriction between 9pm and 6am, Chandy wanted the ban to be imposed between 10pm and 5am.
Also, he said the rules states that only 16 vehicles can be allowed during night and he wanted that to be extended to 20. In the interest of wildlife, he said they are ready to run goods vehicles at 30 km per hour speed and if not provide escort vehicles to all good and public transport vehicles. Presently both the states have 4 buses running during the night but Kerala is requesting to push the number to 25.
The NH 212 is 17.5kms from the Karnataka border to Sultan bathery. More than 4000 vehicles cross this NH in one day. On the other hand, the traffic on NH 67 that passes through the Bandipur Tiger Reserve largely consists of tourists plying from Karnataka to the hill resort of Ooty.
A forest official’s view
KanthaRaju, Deputy Conservator of Forests, when quizzed about the ban’s effect told Newskarnataka.com, “ I stand for the ban imposed on Bandipur NH as the deaths of the animals during the night has come down and also the illegal activities have also come under control”.
“Before the ban, every 40 minutes a vehicle would cross the highway. The number of deaths have come down from 165 to below 20 in 3 years after the ban imposed on the NH”, he added
His solution to Kerala’s transportation issues: “there are two other routes via Kutta-Kartikulam and Konaoor-Makutta by which vehicles can reach Kerala. The Karnataka Government has spent lots of money on improving the alternative routes like via Hunsur-Gonikoppal- Kutta-Kartikulam and via Konaoor-Makutta to northern Kerala which will just add around 35Kms to the orginal distance”, he opined and added, “Taking these alternate routes to reach Wayanad & Ooty will be good idea, it makes no sense to risk the lives of these innocent animals”.
He expressed his concern about illegal activities too: “As liquor is banned in Kerala, if the ban imposed on vehicle movement is withdrawn, it will be an opportunity to transport the liquor illegally and for many illegal activities such as timber smuggling, wildlife poaching, illegal transport of livestock and sand mining”, he stressed.
A case for the continuance of the ban
There is also a case for a continuance of the ban in the successes of similar methods adopted in other tiger reserves. When a similar problem occurred two other tiger reserves, Sariska tiger reserve and Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve, similar bans were imposed on the night traffic on the highways that passed through these reserves. Similarly the Hyderabad Tiger Conservation Society (HyTiCoS), a voluntary organization working exclusively for Conservation of Tigers in Andhra Pradesh, successfully lobbied for stopping traffic at night across the Kawal Wildlife Sanctuary(KWS) roads. The results have been laudable.
The most visible impact of roads through protected areas is road kill deaths. Wildlife species which have poor eyesight or slow movement, an over speeding vehicle proves fatal. These unnatural death, particularly if it is a breeding individuals can have catastrophic effect on the animal population.
Dr. Krishna Mohan Prabhu, a doctor by profession and a wildlife enthusiast, said “studies have repeatedly shown that the roads which pass though protected areas leads to severe negative impact on wildlife. We can notice Wildlife killed by speeding vehicles (Road Kills). There will be disruption of wildlife corridors which are used for migration of animals. Animal behavior gets modified. Their natural movement patterns are altered. Several weeds and domestic animal diseases gets spread along these roads and spread into these protected areas.
“We have also witnessed increased use of forest areas by humans for illegal activities such as timber smuggling, wildlife poaching, illegal transport of livestock and sand mining”, he added.
“Some of the impacts of roads through protected areas can be somewhat mitigated if speed calming and other measures are scientifically implemented. Structures that help wildlife cross safely, such as underpasses, can help reduce road kills. However, since a large proportion of the fatalities happen at night, the best mitigation measure is closure of roads through protected areas for night-time traffic”, he reiterated.
The statistics prove that the ban on night traffic through the Bandipur Tiger Reserve has been beneficial and there is a case for continuing it, even as inter state relations and commerce stress the opposite.
