Wildlife board gives green signal to second phase of Bangalore-Chennai Expressway, with riders

It falls in the Palamaner and Tekumanda reserve forests, including the Chittoor division, which is a part of the ESZ of the Koundinya Wildlife Sanctuary and Rayala Elephant Reserve under Bharatmala..

After an earlier NBWL meeting in December 2022 led to the setting up of a committee to examine the proposal, the committee recommended that an animal passage plan for the 4-lane expressway along the 7.1 km stretch passing through the forests of Chittoor Forest Division and Rayala Elephant Reserve should be considerably strengthened following the guidelines issued by Wildlife Institute of India, and the construction of underpasses to ensure the free movement for elephants...

Along the non-elevated sections of the expressway, this can be ensured for the elephant by adopting the mechanical railway barrier design used by Karnataka Forest Department at places in Bandipur and Nagarhole National Parks, but should be further modified by adding an extra horizontal rail line to the prevailing two rail lines in the Karnataka PAs and raising the overall height of the topmost line by about 0.5 to 1.0 metres..

The NBWL further stipulated that a research project to study the movement of elephants and other fauna in this landscape, including GPS collaring, with funding from NHAI, involving regional institutions, researchers, Wild Life Warden/DFO and field staff should be carried out to ensure the efficacy of the animal passages as well as monitor possible repercussions such as wildlife-human conflicts...

A Biodiversity Conservation plan, including setting up a rapid response team, and other measures for the mitigation of wildlife-human conflicts, for the entire 48 km stretch of the NHAI road within 10 km of ESZ are also to be prepared and implemented by the Forest Department of Andhra Pradesh with funding from the NHAI..

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