It was welcome news for all of us. The entire team which was a part of Wildlife Road kill Awareness Campaign and everybody else at Kenneth Anderson Nature Society were very much delighted when the breaking news "Vehicular traffic on NH-67 (Ooty-Mysore Road) and NH-212 (Mysore-Sultan Battery Road), through Bandipur National Park, will be closed between 9 pm and 6 am to help conservation and avoid accidents involving animals" was published in the media. From past 8 months under the leadership of Soumyajit Nandy (a Founder Committee Member of Kenneth Anderson Nature Society) and Rakesh Gupta (another Founder Committee Member of Kenneth Anderson Nature Society) the team was trying to create awareness among the commuters on Mysore-Ooty road passing through Bandipur Tiger Reserve about the ill-effects of wildlife roadkill due to irresponsible driving habits. The concept was developed by Center for Wildlife Studies and KANS is carrying out the campaign on ground. In that last 3 months the team were more focused on the night traffic as that was the main time when most of these accidents happen. During this period the team has encountered almost 300-450 vehicles on an average travelling both ways between 9pm and 6am. And this was the prime time when many of the nocturnal creatures were on the move, including tigers.
We at Kenneth Anderson Nature Society hope that the rule will be implemented strictly and only the prescribed vehicles should be allowed between 9pm and 6am. It has been a great initiative by the Karnataka Forest Department and successful implementation of it will help a lot for the wildlife conservation as Bandipur is considered a prime habitat of endangered Bengal Tiger. Being the flagship species and the apex predator, if we are successful in preserving the tigers, the animals down the food chain and their habitat also will get preserved to a great extent.
Shall we stop our campaign here? The answer is NO!!!!!! There will be few issues following the closure. And one of them will be increase in day traffic by many folds and that will need more and more efforts on creating awareness and educating people. And animals do move across the highway at daytime also and because of increase in traffic, chances of man-animal conflict and road kills may increase. So KANS will still carry out the campaign during the daytime and keep on trying to educate the commuters on that highway. We are looking at a long term solution of the problem and one of them is creating the awareness about the importance of wildlife among the public. We should understand that "Our very own existence depends on them"!
We at Kenneth Anderson Nature Society hope that the rule will be implemented strictly and only the prescribed vehicles should be allowed between 9pm and 6am. It has been a great initiative by the Karnataka Forest Department and successful implementation of it will help a lot for the wildlife conservation as Bandipur is considered a prime habitat of endangered Bengal Tiger. Being the flagship species and the apex predator, if we are successful in preserving the tigers, the animals down the food chain and their habitat also will get preserved to a great extent.
Shall we stop our campaign here? The answer is NO!!!!!! There will be few issues following the closure. And one of them will be increase in day traffic by many folds and that will need more and more efforts on creating awareness and educating people. And animals do move across the highway at daytime also and because of increase in traffic, chances of man-animal conflict and road kills may increase. So KANS will still carry out the campaign during the daytime and keep on trying to educate the commuters on that highway. We are looking at a long term solution of the problem and one of them is creating the awareness about the importance of wildlife among the public. We should understand that "Our very own existence depends on them"!
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