Saving Wildlife on India’s Roads Needs Collaborative and not Competitive Efforts

Transportation infrastructure is central to the functioning and development of human societies. However, the widespread network of transportation infrastructure worldwide has also altered natural landscapes drastically in the past century. These networks pervade far beyond any other human infrastructure, and pose multiple negative impacts to the natural elements of the landscapes they cut across^1,2. Road networks worldwide have splintered previously undisturbed swathes of forests into nearly 600,000 patches, only 7% of which are larger than 100 km² in size³, making movement across these patches challenging for wildlife. Road and traffic emissions such as noise, gaseous and liquid pollutants, and solid waste also cause disturbance and may result in avoidance of these forests by wildlife⁴.