Roads, sensitive habitats and wildlife : environmental guideline for India and South Asia

Wildlife biologists have at their disposal a large library of texts, sourcebooks and manuals on how to manage wildlife ecosystems. Conversely, transportation planners and managers, who must regularly route roads and rail lines across expanses of wildlife territory, rivers, wetlands and along coastlines have no such tools. A classic case of under-equipping the 'front lines'. This seems doubly unfortunate given that roads are the single most intrusive human activity in relation to wildlife and wildlife habitat. The Roads, Sensitive Habitats and Wildlife: Environmental Guideline for India and South Asia, has been written to fill that gap. It is likely the first of its kind in the region. The Guideline defines basic step-by-step process that permits non-specialists to incorporate wildlife and wildlife habitat conservation principles into road and rail planning. It is not an exhaustive treatment of wildlife ecology and latest techniques. The authors have presented these steps in the context of basic wildlife biology and conservation concepts in order to provide a realistic backdrop to the wildlife-road transportation relationship.

The authors present more than 75 accounts of actual project experiences across India and South Asia and provide six case studies that highlight lessons learned. It is hoped that the inclusion of the case studies will stimulate the further exchange of experiences among road planners and natural resource managers across India and South Asia. Will is extending this work by continuing to assemble wildlife-road-related studies and data from across India.