A golden jackal was crushed to death by an unidentified speeding vehicle around midnight on Sunday on the service road near DPS Flamingo Lake, Nerul in Navi Mumbai. An unidentified four-wheeler hit the jackal on its back, badly crushing it, a volunteer of Wildlife Welfare Association (WWA), said. He received the distress call around 12 midnight. Environmentalists have expressed their shock at the incident and called for taking strict measures to prevent such incidents.
NatConnect Foundation director B N Kumar called for complete stop of any further real estate development in the area to save the mangrove-wetland wildlife. DPS Flamingo Lake and the mangroves around it have already been declared as conservation reserve recently and the area in its periphery must be left free for wildlife, he said. A variety of native and migratory birds, jackals, reptiles inhabit the mangrove-wetland zone, Kumar said.
Sandeep Sareen of Navi Mumbai Environment Preservation Society (NMEPS) said the speeding vehicles on the service road parallel to Palm Beach Road has become a big menace. He demanded immediate imposition of speed restrictions on the service road. Many motorists take a quick diversion from Palm Beach Road to avoid signals and rash driving has become the order of the day, Sareen lamented.
The non-stop construction activity in the area and CIDCO plans to lease out plots endanger the biodiversity, he said. Environmentalist Jyoti Nadkarni said golden jackals have been victims of hit-and-run at Nerul as well as Kharghar. The activists have called for creating a corridor to save the jackals and contain them to their zone.