Gurugram, Nov 21 The forest department in Gurugram has taken a slew of decisions to save leopards and other wild animals from accidents while crossing the Sohna-Gurugram Road and Gurugram-Faridabad Road.
These efforts came following a report that as many as three leopards in the past six years have lost their lives while attempting to cross killer stretches.
Notably, one leopard has lost his life in the previous month while crossing the Gurugram-Faridabad Road.
"We are concerned about the deaths of leopards on these stretches, wild animals meeting accidents on national highways and state highways while crossing the roads. In view of these instances we are planning to install fencing along roadsides at wild animal prone areas. These fences will help to stop animals from coy on to roads," said M.S. Malik principal chief conservative officer, Forest department.
The officer also informed that the department is in the process of installing warning signages along Sohna-Gurugram road to alert commuters about the presence of wild animals the area and advise them to drive slow.
"Also we will write to the Public Works Department (PWD) to ensure clearance of small culverts so that small animals could cross roads one side to another to avoid accidents. The forest officials will also identified such culverts to work on them," he said.
According to him, it had been found that commuters violated the speed limit rules on the stretches, which pass through forests, corridors.
"We cannot let animals die like this. We will constitute a monitoring team of the forest department to conduct quarterly visits to check fencing, position of wires to prevent the death of wildlife from accidents," he added.
"As there is no provision of laying speed breakers on national highways, many animals die in accidents while crossing the roads. We have decided to install rubber breakers for vehicle speed restrictions. The PWD will work on this," Malik said.
( With inputs from IANS )
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