India - Wildlife;India's 'death road' exacts a heavy toll

Alastair Lawson

Film maker Gautam Saikia hopes this kind of publicity he produced will make the park safer for animals

It's home to some of the rarest wildlife in India including the Royal Bengal tiger, the one-horned Asian rhino - described as the only pre-historic animal in the world still surviving - over 500 species of birds and innumerable monkeys and snakes.

It is a vast expanse of elephant grass, marshland and dense rainforest.

But conservationists say that wildlife in Kaziranga national park in the north-eastern state of Assam is in danger because of the notorious National Highway 37, which cuts through the park as the main overland road link between the north-east and the rest of India.

They say that unless the volume of traffic on the highway is brought under control, more and more of these rare animals are going to end up either killed or injured.

They are especially concerned over what they say are plans by the central and state government to widen the road to four lanes.

'Dangerous'

"If this goes ahead, the already high casualty level of animals killed on the road will increase exponentially," said Soumyadeep Datta of the campaigning group, Nature's Beckon.


"It's possible that work to widen the road could begin as early as next year."

Conservationists argue that the problem is especially difficult during the monsoon season when the heavy rains force animals to cross the highway in search of higher ground to escape the floods.

Many do so at night time, which makes it more dangerous for wildlife and traffic alike on a road used by more than 1,000 vehicles between dusk and dawn and three times that amount during the day.

"The road may be a lifeline that connects Assam with the rest of India, but for animals it is a death trap, and each year the problem gets worse and worse," says conservationist and film-maker Gautam Saikia.

"When it rains the low-lying areas of the park become uninhabitable for the animals - often 80% of it is submerged.

"They have no choice but to cross the road - usually heading south towards the Karbi Anglong Hills - to find food. But it's when they do that they are at most risk of being run over."

'Nowhere to go'

Soumyadeep Datta says that the problem is made worse because much of the land on higher ground has been bought up by hotel groups and property development companies.


"We are fasting reaching a situation where there is literally nowhere for the animals to go," he said.

Forestry officials have tried to combat the problem by constructing animal corridors across various parts of the N-37.

They are manned 24 hours a day, with guards on duty to slow speeding vehicles and help the animals cross as safely as possible.

Forestry officers at the park say it's next to impossible to get traffic always to slow down enough to avoid an accident.

"You have to remember that if we put too many resources into traffic calming measures we may take our eye of the ball when it comes to dealing with poachers, who also pose a big threat to the park's wildlife," an official told the BBC.

All this is a far cry form when the park was founded as a forestry reserve in 1905. Then animals could roam across a far larger area when and where they liked.

But the rhino population then had dwindled to only about 10 to 20 creatures because of rampant poaching.

Tigers

The decision to declare Kaziranga a reserve forest and later a national park proved life-saving for them.

By 1966, the population had risen to 366 and the quality of conservation got even better when Kaziranga was declared a national park in 1974.

It is now home to two-thirds of the world's Great One-Horned Rhinos in addition to the highest density of tigers in a protected area in the world.

The number of Royal Bengal tigers in this World Heritage Site is more than that of Ranthambhore and Kanha tiger parks in north India put together.



There are more than 1,700 rhinos in the park, despite some casualties due to Assam's devastating floods and poaching.


"We need the same kind of drive and determination to save the animals now as was shown then," said Mr Saikia.

"The Asiatic water buffalo, the Royal Bengal tiger, the Asiatic elephant and swamp deer all roam the park. These animals along with the one-horned rhino make the Big Five of Kaziranga, but none is completely safe from the traffic, especially heavy trucks."

The 450 sq km National Park also has the world's highest concentration of Asiatic elephants and Asiatic buffalos.

Wildlife experts have said the Kaziranga buffaloes are the purest breed anywhere in the world.

Kaziranga's Asiatic water buffalo count is more than 1,500 while its elephant population numbers over 1,048.


KAZIRANGA'S HISTORY
1905: Proposed as a forestry reserve
1916: Declared game sanctuary
1974: Declared national park
1985: Becomes a world heritage site

The national park is also renowned for its fauna.

Ornithologists have documented over 500 species of birds at Kaziranga, at least a 100 more than India's most renowned bird sanctuary - Bharatpur. It also has a wide range of primates.

Of the 14 species found in India, nine are in Kaziranga and outlying wildlife reserves alone.

"We need to decide what comes first: India's infrastructure or its priceless and irreplaceable wildlife," said Mr Datta.