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NHAI details ₹19,700 crore wildlife safeguards against habitat fragmentation on highways

By CAShorts DeskPublished Updated Source: MoRTH, PIB; NHAI wildlife document; Wildlife Institute of India

NHAI details ₹19,700 crore wildlife safeguards against habitat fragmentation on highways
Illustration (AI-generated)

The National Highways Authority of India has released a document on wildlife mitigation along national highways, the Road Transport Ministry said on October 8. About ₹19,700 crore went into wildlife mitigation and related environmental protection over five years, including ₹4,600 crore on animal underpasses. More than 2,150 mitigation structures have been built or proposed.

Syllabus: Prelims · Environment & Ecology; GS3 · Infrastructure; GS3 · Environment & Conservation

Why it matters

A driver on a forest highway at night and an elephant trying to cross it face the same danger: a collision. Even without collisions, a busy road splits a forest, so animals on either side mix less and small populations can become genetically isolated. Underpasses, overpasses, canopy bridges for langurs and macaques, and fencing that steers animals to them keep habitats joined while traffic flows. The ₹19,700 crore shows the scale of the effort. The real test is whether animals use the crossings, which is why NHAI's framework calls for camera traps, radio telemetry and before-and-after studies.

Prelims pointers

  • NHAI: statutory body set up by the National Highways Authority of India Act, 1988; develops, maintains and manages national highways vested in or entrusted to it.
  • National highways: Entry 23 of the Union List in the Seventh Schedule; they are declared by or under a law of Parliament, the National Highways Act, 1956.
  • Habitat fragmentation: breaking a continuous habitat into isolated patches; roads cause it through barrier effects, traffic deaths and habitat loss, and can genetically isolate populations.
  • Environmental Impact Assessment: prior appraisal of listed projects, including highways, under the EIA Notification, 2006, issued under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
  • Wildlife clearance: projects inside protected areas go to the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife, constituted under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
  • Canopy bridge: a rope, pole or wooden walkway about 1 m wide, strung above a road or railway for tree-dwelling animals such as langurs, macaques, squirrels and civets.
  • Umbrella species such as the tiger: protecting their range protects many other species; NHAI's principles ask mitigation to sustain the prey populations they depend on.
  • Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, issues the guidance for linear infrastructure that NHAI follows; the sequence is avoid, minimise, then mitigate.

Practise a UPSC-style question

With reference to national highways in India, consider the following statements:

1. The National Highways Authority of India develops, maintains and manages national highways vested in or entrusted to it.

2. The National Highways Authority of India was constituted under the National Highways Act, 1956.

3. National highways are a subject in the State List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. (a) 1 only
  2. (b) 2 only
  3. (c) 3 only
  4. (d) 1, 2 and 3
Show the answer

Answer: (a) 1 only

1 is correct: Section 16 of the National Highways Authority of India Act, 1988 makes this the Authority's core function. 2 is incorrect: NHAI was constituted under the National Highways Authority of India Act, 1988; the 1956 Act provides for declaring national highways and charging fees on them. 3 is incorrect: highways declared by or under a law of Parliament to be national highways are Entry 23 of the Union List.

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