Team Herald
CANACONA: The rising number of deaths of wild animals on National Highway 66 has raised many an eyebrow of wild life enthusiasts and animal lovers in South Goa.
Unless the forest department and government implement effective plans, wild lives will continue to die premature deaths.
National Highway 66 (NH66) from Polem to Balli in Quepem mostly passes through thick forests. These dense woodlands are home to over fifty species of wild mammals, amongst which are leopard, monkey, Indian civet, malabar palm civet, Indian bison, sloth bear, Indian porcupine, pangolin, slender loris, wild boar, mongoose, Indian giant squirrel, three-striped squirrel and the five-striped palm squirrel, cheetal, sambar, barking and mouse deers, jackal, and wild dogs.
These forests also sustain twenty-three species of snakes which include the common blind snake, the Russell sand boa, the Indian python, the Indian wart snake, trinket snake, Indian rat snake, golden tree snake, common wolf snake, chequered keelback, striped keelback, Indian gamma and common green whip snake, king cobra, spectacle cobra, common Indian krait, coral snake, Russell’s viper, saw-scaled viper and the bamboo pit viper.
In search of food or mate, these spectacular animals traverse huge distances sometimes reaching human settlements. This has lead to human-animal conflict in recent times in the villages of South Goa.
A major concern of worry for the wild animal enthusiasts here is the frequent deaths in the dark of night on NH66 from Polem to Balli.
The bright lights and high speed of the vehicles passing in the night have compounded the problem as these nocturnal animals get blinded by the spot lights and are run over by these vehicles.
Manoj Prabhugaonkar a wildlife enthusiast from Canacona said that the forest department and wild life conservationists have done precious little as far as safety of these wild animals on the roads of Goa is concerned.
“It is the duty of the forest department to erect sign boards alerting and cautioning drivers to be aware of the movement of wild animals on the road specially the NH66. It is also necessary to build underpasses on the national highways for free movement of these creatures,” Prabhugaonkar said.
