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Journalism of Courage
On Sunday, Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Parveen Kaswan urged people to drive carefully as they cross roads in forested areas.
The officer made the appeal while sharing a photograph of a dead cheetah who succumbed to injuries after being hit by a vehicle.
“On roads around forest, wildlife has first right of way. Please drive carefully!!” Kaswan tweeted along with a photograph of the dead animal. He later added in another tweet, “This one lost his life on a road near a forest area. While trying to cross the road a speeding vehicle hit & ran away.”
In India, many endangered animals die after they are hit by vehicles in an attempt to cross roads and railway tracks.
In January this year, a two-year-old male leopard was rescued by the forest department after it was hit by a vehicle on the Western Peripheral Expressway in Haryana’s Nuh. While in this case the animal was saved, for most injuries turn out to be fatal.
Animal rights activists and wildlife conservation experts have demanded the construction of “wildlife corridors” to prevent such accidents. Wildlife corridors can be made in form of an underpass or an overpass that replace regular roads in forested areas so that animals do not come in contact with passing traffic.
The Balasaheb Thackeray Samruddhi Mahamarg constructed between Nagpur and Mumbai in Maharashtra is set to be the country’s first highway project that will include multiple wildlife corridors to facilitate safe animal movement.
