Linear Infrastructure and Its Impact on Wildlife

Context: In response to a question in Rajya Sabha, the MoEFCC has told the Rajya Sabha that 49 elephants were killed in Railway accidents between 2016 and 2018.

Introduction:

• Man-made linear infrastructure such as roads, highways, power lines, railway lines, canals, pipelines (water, gas, petroleum), electric fences, and fire lines, have highlydetrimental ecological impacts and pose significant threat to wildlife.
• Some prominent examples of the negative impacts include NH72 and 74 crossing Rajaji National Park, NH 67 and 212 passing through Bandipur National Park

Linear Infrastructure across wildlife habitats in India

1. 72 of the documented 88 elephant corridors have national highways or other major roads passing through them and 7 have railway lines
2. Of the 50 Protected Areas (PAs), declared as tiger reserves in the country, major roads pass through 26

Impact of Linear Infrastructure on Wildlife

1. Habitat Loss:There is direct loss of habitat during establishment and maintenance of roads, highways and railway lines due to clearance of vegetation, dumping of excavated earth and materials, movement of heavyvehicles etc.
2. Habitat Fragmentation: Road and railway lines dissect contiguous habitat patches, resulting in smaller patches and consequent decline in biodiversity due to increased outer disturbances.
3. Degradation of Habitat quality: wildlife habitats adjacent to rail and roads often suffers from various detrimental impacts from invasion of exotic species, pollution due to liquid solid wastes and emissions.
4. Noise Induced Psychological and Behavioural changes in animals: Traffic noise is often attributed to cause significant psychological and behavioural issues in animals especially birds. Traffic noise directly interferes with birds’ vocal communication and consequently their territorial behaviour and mating.
5. Injury and mortality:

• Road and rail induced injury and mortality has been one of the prime concerns for wildlife conservationists with and expanding infrastructure.According to govt. sources 49 elephants were killed in Railway accidents between 2016 and 2018 in India; highest deaths occurring in Assam and West Bengal.
• Overhead transmissions lines, electric fences pose significant threat of electrocution for birds, arboreal animals and even bigger mammals like elephants.

6. Barrier to movement:Roads or other linear features restrict, or filter animal movement.The barrier effecton wildlife may arise from traffic noise, vehicle movement, pollution, human activity and physical hindrances.
7. Increased human-wildlife conflict: Road and railways may disrupt normal habitats of animals forcing them to move out to human habitats thus increasing the risks of human-animal conflict.

Steps taken by Indian government:

1. Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of 1994: As per the EIA notifications, any person undertaking new road construction, upgrading existing road sections, widening and conversion to multi-lanes or laying powerlines in any part of India need to submit an application to MoEFCC according to its guidelines and seek approval
2. Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980: According to the Act, every project requiring conversion of forest land to non-forest land requires approval from MoEFCC
3. Supreme Court judgement (2013): The SC has directed the railways to reduce the speed of trains, stop goods trains during night hours and develop alternate routes
4. MoEFCC’sadvisory to railway and state governments to prevent collision of trains with wild elephants:

• Clearing vegetation on the sides of railway tracks,
• Underpasses/overpasses/girder bridges across vulnerable stretches of railway tracks to allow safe passage of elephants,
• Signage boards at selected points to alert train drivers
• Sensitization programmes for train drivers/guards/station masters
• Keeping railway tracks free from food wastes as that attracts elephants and other animals.

5. In 2018, MoEFCC made the animal passage plan mandatory for all linear infrastructures in India

Challenges:

1. Development vs. Protection: Linear infrastructure such as road, railways and powerlines are integral part of the national economic framework and key enablers of development. Striking a balance between infrastructure development and wildlife protection/conservation is the biggest challenge.
2. Lack of Comprehensive policy:There is no national policy and appropriate rules for implementation ofecologically sound practices and alternatives to harmful linear intrusions in natural areas.
3. Unlawful Practices:Many infrastructure projects opt unlawful practices in relation to project development,implementation, monitoring, and appraisal.
4. Poor Implementation: The guidelines, advisories and legislations are not implemented. For example; Despite Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) advisory titled ‘Eco-friendly measures to mitigate impacts of linear infrastructure’, deaths of wild animals in road and railway accidents have been on a rise.

Steps to be taken:

1. Prevention:

• New linear infrastructure projects that disregard MoEFCC’s guidelines and do not incorporate wildlife-friendly designs and required crossingstructures should not be permitted in designated protected areas and critical habitats.
• There needs to be a revaluation of the existing roads and railway lines in Protected Areasand realigning/closure of these detrimental structures after necessary studies.
• Speed reduction of vehicles is an important measure to stop road kills and these are already being implemented. For e.g. speed breakers on the Mysore –Ooty road passing through Mudumalai TigerReserve

2. Policy: There is an urgent need for formulation ofa comprehensive and broadly applicable national policy to address the adverse effects of linear infrastructure on wildlife.
3. Smart and Green infrastructure: It is important to adopt ecologically sound practices and alternatives to harmful linear intrusions in natural areas. Such measures could include natural crossings (e.g. Canopy bridges in Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary), underpass, overpasses etc.
4. Technology: Technological applications can help prevent rail/ road accidents by providing alerts to drivers and forest officials. For e.g. the use of ELETRACK