India accounts for 10% of all people dying in road accidents each year. In the year 2020, 1.5 lakh people died in road accidents across the country. Responding to a question in Parliament, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said that more people died in road accidents in 2020 than from the novel coronavirus, in a year in which lockdowns across the country saw fewer vehicles on roads.
Roads, however, are proving dangerous not only to human beings but also to wild animals – a leopard was killed by a vehicle on the Surajkund-Pali road in Faridabad district of Haryana recently. A large Sambhar deer had a narrow escape on the Kalyan Nirmal Highway (National Highway 222) in Pune district on Monday.
Passers-by found the animal, wounded and shocked, and informed authorities. The forest department was alerted, and the NGO Wildlife SOS was called in to help. A crowd had gathered at the spot to film the animal on their mobile phones when a team from the forest department and Wildlife SOS arrived to help.
The Sambhar was identified as a female, about four years old. “We administered fluid to help her regain strength. She was in shock and unable to move,” said Dr Nikhil Bangar, wildlife vet with the NGO.
Kartick Satyanarayan, CEO, Wildlife SOS, said more people are now alerting the forest department of such incidents and rescue missions are possible because of timely alerts. Range forest officer Yogesh Ghodake said, “We were successful in rescuing the animal and returning it to the wild.”
What is distressing is that road projects are often planned without consideration for their impact on wildlife. A recent study had shown that the Sambhar deer are quite shy and keep away from roads.
A road was planned even across the core area of the Corbett National Park, home to over 200 tigers. This was stayed by the Supreme Court.
