India will soon see first ever four-footed animal overpasses

We often heard the word ‘bridge’ which means in general, a structure stretching and providing passage over a gap like river, roadway, where it is open for pedestrians to walk and the vehicles to ply on.

But can you imagine four footed animals have a separate passage to walk on the bridges without any impediment!  Yes, it is true, India will now come out with a major infrastructure expansion project featuring five animal bridges.    

If one is looking across the globe, animal crossings on highways be extant which include, Banff National Park, Collier, and Lee counties in Florida, Underpasses in southern California, Ecoducts, The Netherlands, Slaty Creek Wildlife Underpass, Calder Freeway, and Black Forest, Australia.

For the first time in India, Delhi-Mumbai expressway, will be specifically designed for animal bridges.

It comes up with the idea of five animal overpasses to motif so as to not disturb the surrounding environment and wildlife sanctuaries.  Principally, the bridges will give aid to the movement of wildlife especially Ranthambore Wildlife Corridor and Mukundra (Darrah) wildlife sanctuaries in Rajasthan. 

The main reason behind to construct overpass especially for the animals is to avoid collision on the highway and will avow both [vehicle and animal] concomitantly unharmed and exist on the roads. Since the bridges will be designed thusly that one can see segment of a forest corridor at every 500-metre interval, which certainly enthuse to avoid conflict, and will allow safe passage to animals.  The main purpose of the passage is to build forest corridor so that animals get the sense of feeling and do not find any unusual.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is in the forefront to develop these bridges.  It has been sourced that five underground stretches will be built with a combined length of 2.5 km and should have a boundary wall of eight metres with effective sound barrier to protect the local habitats and animals.   

It is presumed that the project will begin in the next two months and if it goes well according to plan, India will witness first-ever animal overpasses, which will be lines similar to the animal bridges in the Netherlands.  No doubt the resolution is really significant for a sustainable model of infrastructure and natural habitat. 

The completion of the bridges may take two years [2022] to be fully operational 

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is showing eagerness to term the project as a sustainable model of development since it is promising to maintain the practice and strictly keep equal or greater value without degrading or endangering the ecosystem. 

Every so often man-animal conflict is quite prevalent and the occurrence is known in various places of India, where in most of the cases animals are badly affected. 

It has been reviewed that in National Highways, mostly animals are killed on the roads every day.  Most likely are to be found birds, reptiles, deer, etc. are killed on the world's roads every day. The number of animals killed in the United States has been estimated at a million per day and India is not lacking behind in the race. 

One should comprehend we cannot ignore the animal and the plant populations, both are simultaneously co-exist and their connections are very imperative.  If we do so, there is a great risk of local extinction.

It is a quite common belief that whenever distinction arises, we tend to ignore about animal rights and its conservation.  Then the question does arise, should animal have rights, and quite simply, the answer is “Yes!” As the verbatim goes “Build bridges not walls.” Animals surely deserve to live their lives free from suffering and exploitation. 

Perceptibly, it is a much welcome move to build animal overpass, since it ensures a safe and smooth passage to wildlife and to reduce human-animal conflict.