FWD: Road to destruction

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This article is from The Star Online (http://thestar.com.my)

URL:

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2004/4/20/features/7708909 & sec=f\

eatures

 

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Tuesday April 20, 2004

Road to destruction

 

 

IN ANY road building or highway construction project, hardly any thought is

given to wildlife. Nothing is more destructive to wildlife than a road cutting

through their habitat.

 

Roads have been recognised as a displacement factor which affects the pattern

of animal distribution and movement, fragmenting the population, and as a source

of sediments that clog streams and destroy fisheries.

 

The direct effect of roads on wildlife are roadkills. Vehicles on highways pose

the greatest threat. In many parts of Penang island where massive development is

under way, sightings are frequent of giant monitor lizards squashed under the

wheels of cars. Tortoises are seen crawling on roads.

 

Animals are attracted to roads for a variety of reasons. Snakes are vulnerable

as the warm asphalt attracts them. Birds use roadside gravel to aid in digestion

of seeds, and deer and other browsing herbivores are attracted to the dense

vegetation on the edges of roads.

 

A network of roads causes fragmentation to animal population. Populations of

animal species divided by a heavily-travelled road may be just as isolated from

one another as if separated by miles of barren urban or agricultural land. Thus

roads contribute to what conservation biologists consider the major threat to

biological diversity – habitat fragmentation.

 

With road construction comes pollution such as noise from construction

equipment. And noise remains a problem along highways with heavy traffic.

Animals respond to noise pollution by altering their activity patterns. There is

an increase in heart rate and stress hormones are produced. Birds and other

wildlife which communicate via auditory signals are at a disadvantage close to

roads.

 

The indirect effects of roads on wildlife are road access for humans and their

tools of destruction. This will lead to capture of rare species for the wildlife

trade and the collection of rare plants.

 

The most devastating disturbance promoted by road access is development.

Highways introduce pressures for commercial development of nearby land and new

rural and suburban roads bring in commercial, industrial and residential

development. Thus roads bring settlements and developments which in turn call

for more roads.

 

While Federal and state governments continue to disregard the ecological

impacts of roads, and continue to construct roads in or close to natural

habitats with or without an Environmental Impact Assessment, wildlife

destruction continues unnoticed.

 

Government agencies and road planners must bear in mind that wildlife was there

before the roads but no consideration was given to them in the building of our

roads.

 

Animal deaths by motor vehicles cannot be completely eradicated so long as

drivers continue to ignore wildlife crossings on our roads. Politicians, road

planners and engineers should give serious consideration to conservation and

management strategies for wildlife species and natural habitats in all land use

planning.

 

A study should be carried out on traffic intensity and road casualties, and the

possibility of elevating highways over forest corridors and wildlife routes and

the placing of signages of “Wildlife Crossings” at sections of the road to warn

speeding vehicles.

 

A lesson on road deaths should be part of the curriculum for drivers in all

driving schools. Drivers should be advised to use bright lights and be extra

careful in rural areas since most accidents involving wildlife occur at night.

 

With common sense and good planning, wildlife can be protected from the roads.

 

 

 

S.M. Mohd Idris

 

President

 

Sahabat Alam Malaysia

 

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