Overview
- NHAI released a Wildlife Institute of India report Friday, ahead of the April 14 opening of the Delhi–Dehradun Expressway.
- The 40-day survey used 150 camera traps and 29 sound recorders to log 40,444 wildlife detections from more than 111,000 images.
- Cameras documented 18 species using the crossings, including 60 elephant passages and regular use by leopards, nilgai, sambar, chital, jackals, and hare.
- Use was uneven as people, livestock, and vehicles often used the underpasses, and traffic noise pushed many animals to favor night-time or quieter sections.
- The study area includes 10.97 km of passages under the road and a long raised stretch that lets animals move below it, and NHAI said it will add sound barriers and keep monitoring to improve performance.