Elevated Amrabad forest road can prevent mishaps, save lives

Hyderabad: A 44-km long elevated corridor through the Amrabad tiger reserve (ATR) proposed by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, who sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assistance in getting it approved, could become the largest such roadway passing through any protected forest area in the country.

Reddy, while seeing off Modi at the Begumpet airport, had submitted a list of projects and sought the Prime Minister’s help in getting them implemented. The elevated roadway corridor through ATR is among them.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had earlier proposed four-laning of NH 765 but the proposal fell by the wayside over concerns of safety of wildlife crossing the road in the core area of the tiger reserve.

“The new proposal, if approved and implemented, might result in some disturbance during the construction period but over the long run, it will help in protecting the forest and its wildlife,” a forest department official said.

The elevated corridor, estimated to cost Rs 7,700 crore, would remove animals and the people from each other’s paths.

ATR regularly reports wild animals, including deer, jungle cats, monkeys, a number of reptiles and birds falling prey to speeding vehicles. The toll rises during traffic rush periods such as Maha Sivaratri and Ugadi.

A similar problem exists in the neighbouring Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam tiger reserve (NSTR) in Andhra Pradesh. According to officials, in the past one month, several road kills were recorded. There is an urgent need to regulate passage of heavy vehicles during nights, an official from AP forest department said.

On the highway between Dornal and Atmakur, NSTR saw deaths of small Indian civets, deer, foxes, and at least one leopard in the last one month.