Roadkills!

[Bibhav Behera]

This is a sight which unfortunately has become more common than we would like it to be. Often on highways which cut through wooded lands and reserve forests, people drive very rashly and the result is often fatal for a variety of animals. There have been reports of many rusty spotted cats and other species being killed on the highway through Bandipur as well.

This was an instance on NH-17 on the Bombay to Goa stretch. Usually macaques are vigilant animals and them being killed in hits shows how rash the vehicles would be driving. One needs speed regulators and enforcers in such areas.

Discussions on the same welcome.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Very Sad.
Also most of the road kills happen in the night and the victims are usually nocturnal creatures. This seems to have happened during daytime. The larger issue is that as long as you have major roads running through forest lands this is very difficult to control. It is not easy to sensitise a truck driver running on full load to break suddenly for a small mammal. It is even more difficult to change the mindset of the drunken lot which zoom on highways cutting through reserves on weekends, some of them boast the speeds clocked on these roads in their ridiculous blogs. Paradigm shifts in mindsets in a country like ours with all its third world realities and an exploding population will take a lot of time, effort and can be a very frustrating cause. The alternative of Monitoring and Punitive measures might work but the foresight of our law makers and the effectiveness of law enforcement is on display in so many other fields that it is better not discussed and one is left with no other option but to try and educate people and Pics like this will in some small way contribute to the cause.....

TFS. aptly reflects the tragedy

Roopak

[Bibhav Behera]

Roopak, you are right. This was during the daytime. The blood hadnt even clotted fully and Rigor Mortis had not set in. It was hardly an hour or so earlier if I am not wrong.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Sad. This is becoming a regular affair in most of our highways. The other day I saw a few bonnet macaque kills in the chalakudy-valparai -coimbatore route.

I had seen a bonnet macaque killed infront of the bandipur forest office and the person in the outpost nonchalantly picked it up and threw the body by the road side.

In another case, I found a bonnet macaque lying by the roadside with its grieving mate nearby.

Reminds me of John Denver's song "Country roads....take me home.... " These days, one is not sure who will reach home. :-(

With the absence of policing, I would prefer that our forest roads be left unmaintained, so that the speeds of the vehicles are under control.