Conservation experts have stressed on the need to build wildlife friendly physical infrastructure.
At an interaction on “Big Infrastructure and Wildlife” organised in Lalitpur on Wednesday, the participations said the conservation of wildlife should be taken into account while building infrastructure. The program was organised by the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) with the support from World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
During the program, policy makers and conservation experts held an intense discussion on the impact of big projects of national priority on wildlife, ways to lessen the effect of big infrastructure on the conservation, trans-boundary conservation strategy, and necessary measures to be adopted in the future.
Deputy Director General at DNPWC Gopal Prasad Bhattarai informed that around 326 wild animals of 30 different species died in the National Parks, and protected areas in the fiscal year 2016/17. A total of 133 animals were killed in road accidents, 101 died natural deaths and the 92 others died due to various reasons, he said.
“The government is planning to build 57,632 km roads including tracks and blacktopped. And most of the roads are not environment friendly,” said Deputy Director General Bhattarai.
He underscored that the concerned stakeholders should strictly adhere to wildlife friendly techniques while building the railway track, roads, and irrigation canal. “In order to build eco-friendly infrastructures, the authority should avoid building road through jungle, construct underpass and overpass,” said Bhattarai. “Now the government body should work in coordination while undertaking the development works so that the wildlife won’t die untimely deaths.”
WWF Nepal Senior Policy Director Santosh Mani Nepal said that Nepal should consider building wildlife friendly infrastructures as the country has already practiced it before.
“Canada, the Netherlands, the US, Japan, and Kenya, among other countries, have built wildlife-friendly infrastructures for smaller creatures,” said Director Nepal. “Nepal for the first time built an underpass in Ramnagar of Chitwan.” He noted that the bio-diversity could be conserved if the authority could formulate eco-friendly development plans.
Director of Species & Landscapes Program at WWF-India Dipankar Ghose opined that many wildlife animals are dying due to lack of proper infrastructure connecting borders. He said that the infrastructures to be built in the future should be wildlife friendly.
