This article was published in The Hindu Survey of the Environment 2009 (pages 113 – 118) without the supporting footnotes. The original article with footnotes and photographs, appeared on the NCF blog, EcoLogic on 10 October 2009. For a revised and updated version, read the Chapter in my book: The Wild Heart of India: Nature and Conservation in the City, the Country, and the Wild.

Crunch! Splat! Thud! A daily massacre is occurring under the wheels of our vehicles. Thousands of lives are snuffed out tragically, instantaneously, and yet, we hardly notice.

Around India, as in other parts of the world, millions of animals risk daily encounter with increasingly fast vehicles plying on an expanding meshwork of roads and highways.

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Read more in The Wild Heart of India: Nature and Conservation in the City, the Country, and the Wild.

  • An endangered lion-tailed macaque lies dead on the road in a rain forest fragment in the Western Ghats. (Photo: Kalyan Varma)
  • Reptiles, such as this vine snake, and amphibians are among the worst hit in road kills. (Photo: Kalyan Varma)
  • Even quick-footed species, such as this leopard cat, get killed with the increasingly faster traffic. (Photo: Kalyan Varma)
  • An elephant mother uses her body to shield her calf from an approaching vehicle as they cross the road. (Photo: Kalyan Varma)
  • An example of a good forest road, used even by trucks and buses, with unbroken canopy over the road. (Photo: NCF)