Speeding vehicles in SGNP worry animal lovers

DNA: Mumbai: Thursday, August 17, 2017.

Environmentalists have raised questions over the safety of wildlife inside protected areas after information procured under the Right To Information (RTI) Act by a Borivli resident has shown that four large mammals have died between January and June in hit-and-run cases inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP).

Tejas Shah, who sought information under the RTI, said that he was concerned about reckless driving by tourists as well as vehicles belonging to government agencies in the park.

"It is shocking to find out that speeding claimed four lives showing how wild animals are under threat in their own habitat," he said.

According to the RTI reply by the forest department, in January and February two langurs fell victim to speeding vehicles, and were found dead in Tulsi range by staff. On April 26, a spotted deer was found dead near Trimurti junction, and another accident of a wild boar being crushed by a vehicle on June 2. "Three incidents of the four have happened on the Tulsi lake road, which connects Borivli to Mulund and Powai and is also the core area of SGNP. Only government vehicles have access to this road. It is evident that the forest department has not been able to enforce speed regulation inside the core area," Shah added.

Sources in SGNP claimed that there was no denying in the fact that speeding vehicles on the Tulsi lake road include government officials such as the police, BMC, forest department and politicians too, who, to save time, use this road to travel between Borivli and Mulund.

"All the four animals had spinal and head injuries and the pelvis of the wild boar was crushed. Also in all the cases the carcass was found by the forest department clearly indicating that the drivers never reported the accident but simply sped away," said a forest department official.

A senior forest official said that the only solution was installing speed rumblers every 500 meters along with barricades to ensure that vehicles cannot speed on the tulsi lake road. Hefty fines should also be imposed on vehicles found breaking the speed limit.

Pawan Sharma, Honorary Wildlife Warden for Thane said that the RTI reply was indeed worrying. "While we know that four mammals died after their carcasses was found, one can simply imagine the number of smaller fauna like snakes, frogs, turtles being killed daily by speeding vehicles. Due to their size, they must be going unnoticed. We cannot allow such killing of wildlife and hence stringent measures needs to be taken to restrict vehicular speed, not only on the Tulsi lake road but also all over SGNP," he said.

Meanwhile, in a fresh case on Tuesday, a spotted deer was the latest victim of a hit-and-run. Its carcass was found by forest officials with its skull fractured near Chinchpada.