Monitoring of animal underpasses on National Highway 44 (Earlier 7) passing through Pench Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

As part of the project funded by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, New Delhi, three sites were chosen for study- the Central Indian tiger landscape including major roads cutting across the animal corridors in the landscape, the National Highway 37 (now 715) cutting through the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong landscape in Assam, and the State Highway 33 passing through the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, Karnataka. As part of the project, we also monitored the animal underpasses constructed on the National Highway 44 passing through the Pench Tiger reserve, Maharashtra. We used camera traps to capture movement of animals under the nine crossing structures during March-December 2019. We found 18 species of wild animals that were using the crossing structures, with varying frequencies. Seven species of small mammals were found to use the structures. These included Indian hare and jungle cat, which are the most frequent users of the underpasses, and the rare rusty spotted cat. Among wild ungulates, the five major species viz., spotted deer, gaur, nilgai, sambar and wild pig were found to use the structures. Spotted deer and wild pig were the most frequent visitors to the underpasses. Tiger, leopard, wild dog, sloth bear and jackal, the major carnivore species in the landscape, were found using the structures with varying frequencies. Wild dogs were found to use the structures the most, followed by tigers. A total of 89 tiger crossings were recorded from six of the nine structures, by 11 individual tigers.