Road kill of animals by highway traffic in the tropical forests of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, southern India

Authors

  • N. Baskaran
  • D. Boominathan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o2101.753-9

Abstract

Highways passing through natural reserves have adverse impact on wild animals. We evaluated the road kill of vertebrate fauna by vehicular traffic on highways at Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, southern India. In a fortnight’s survey over 248km across three public roads and opportunistic sampling method, a minimum of 180 road kills belonging to 40 species of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals were recorded between December 1998 and March 1999. Amphibians were the most affected taxa (53%) of road kills followed by reptiles (22%), mammals (18%); including a leopard (Panthera pardus) and birds (7%). Amphibians and reptiles are slow to react to vehicles and this along with the drivers’ ignorance probably leads to higher mortality among these species. Road kills are significantly higher on highway stretches along rivers than those without water bodies nearby. We suggest the construction of flyovers, speed limits, speed breakers and signposts along the highways to reduce vehicle-caused wildlife mortalities.

Author Biographies

N. Baskaran

Dr. N. Baskaran is presently a Sr. Scientist at the ANCF, studying Asian Elephant and its habitats across Western and Eastern Ghats and Eastern Himalayas landscapes since 1990.

D. Boominathan

Mr. D. Boominathan is presently a Sr. Project Officer in Western Ghats Landscape Program of WWF, studying the human–elephant conflict since 2003.

Downloads

Published

26-03-2010

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 3 (2010)

Section

Communications

License

Authors own the copyright to the articles published in JoTT.  This is indicated explicitly in each publication. The authors grant permission to the publisher Wildlife Information Liaison Development (WILD) Society to publish the article in the Journal of Threatened Taxa. The authors recognize WILD as the original publisher, and to sell hard copies of the Journal and article to any buyer. JoTT is registered under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which allows authors to retain copyright ownership.  Under this license the authors allow anyone to download, cite, use the data, modify, reprint, copy and distribute provided the authors and source of publication are credited through appropriate citations (e.g., Son et al. (2016). Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) of the southeastern Truong Son Mountains, Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam. Journal of Threatened Taxa 8(7): 8953–8969. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.2785.8.7.8953-8969). Users of the data do not require specific permission from the authors or the publisher.

Most read articles by the same author(s)