Kanha-Pench: 29 wildlife conservationists, scientists come together to save wildlife corridor

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“Further, the very credibility of WII as a scientific institution will be at stake, both nationally and internationally. Changing scientific recommendations without any credible data to the contrary, would only lead to the inevitable conclusion that it is being drawn on the basis of political compulsions,” they added.

WII had recommended 10 underpasses of seven metres height each, totalling 5.5 kilometres along the stretch of National Highway 7 (NH7) that extends from Mansar in Nagpur to Seoni in Madhya Pradesh, as a wildlife mitigation measure to minimise the damage caused by its widening, cutting through the Kanha-Pench wildlife corridor. Proposal for the widening has been made.

The NHAI had questioned the need for the structures. In January 2015, however, the measures were reduced to underpasses, total 2.7 kilometres long and 4.5 metres high.

With NHAI continuing to red-flag the measures, WII further reduced them to 2.2 kilometre length with an improvement of 0.5 metre height.

“Scientific merit has been completely ignored while reducing these measures. The 2012 WII report is based on a four-year study conducted by WII after wide consultation with various stakeholders. The said action (of reducing mitigation measures) of WII and NTCA raises serious and fundamental questions of scientific integrity and upholding the law in the absence of any data to support the reduction in measures,” the group had said.

“Extensive camera-trapping since 2006 has recorded tigers dispersing between Pench and Kanha tiger reserves. The data and analysis show that tigers are likely to disperse between Kanha and Pench. The best patches of contiguous forested habitat are present in the corridor between Pench and Kanha. The corridors need to be given legal status and mitigated with appropriate green infrastructure for development projects within corridor habitats to ensure continued gene flow between populations,” the experts have emphasised, quoting some prominent scientific studies from across the world.

The experts drew the attention of the two institutions towards NHAI’s latest submission before the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court hearing a PIL on the bad condition of the road, stating that funds are not a problem. With this, they have appealed to the institutions to insist the HC implements the 2012 WII measures.

“The NH7 issue has resulted in an unfortunate fait accompli situation. In all such future cases, the principle of avoidance must be followed as per the recommendations of the NBWL sub-committee on Guidelines for Roads in Protected Areas.”