There is some more good news for all wildlife conservationists and lovers. As a gift on the World Envoirnment Day, Chamrajanagar district commissioner Manoj Kumar Meena issued a circular that specifies 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. Only two government buses will be permitted to pass through the critical tiger reserve during those hours. Authorities have made allowance for ambulances and fire engines to pass through at all times.
I guess its a welcome news for all of us and gives us a feeling that Wildlife Conservation is still not a lost cause. But again if we look into the matter minutely, there are few more issues going to crop up now. Definitely a protest by few sectors has already started and it has spread across the state border. Also there will be an increase in traffic during the day time by many fold. Now how do we tackle these problems?
May be we need to think of a long term solution. A different government in power might lift this ban on night traffic through this pristine forest full of wildlife. One solution many conservationists think of is an elevated highway through the forests in India. Given the economic conditions of a growing country like India, this may not be a feasible solution at this point of time but in longer run it will provide a concrete help. Also there has been one elevated highway of 9kms stretch coming up in Bangalore to connect the Electronic city. Country capital Delhi also has much longer elevated expressway connecting Gurgaon.
Also in my opinion the roads inside the forests should not be taken up for up gradation. This will force the vehicles to ply on a slower speed avoiding many wildlife roadkill incidents. This may sound like depriving human beings of some of the basic necessities but aren't the poor wildlife is deprived of many(we have encroached upon their habitat like anything)? So we do need to compromise at some point and work towards bringing back the equilibrium in the nature.
Anyways lets hope this rule(strictly followed) will give us some breathing space at this point of time and we can now gear up for tackling this issue on a larger and longer term basis.
I have always been impressed by the mysore-manathavadi road! The last 27 kms through the national park is really a grueling stretch. it takes two and a half to cover that distance. My car protests, i don't. I wish more roads were there like that in our national parks & sanctuaries.
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