Several conservation organisations disapprove the widening of a stretch of the national highway that already traverses several wildlife corridors. They underline the fact that every year wildlife in significant numbers are killed or maimed after being hit by speeding vehicles. Among the dead have been deer and tigers, not to mention snakes and other small animals.

For years the corridors severed by the NH 37 have been used by animals crossing from the Brahmaputra flood plains to the highlands bordering the hills of Karbi Anglong. The movement of animals increases with the advent of the rainy season and peak during the high monsoons.

Although there are speed regulations in place – at least on paper – it is not surprising to notice vehicles moving at high speeds even while going through the animal corridors. Therefore, after the monsoon sets in, volunteers from conservation groups join hands with forest department personnel and police to regulate traffic across a long stretch of the highway.

In this context, the majority of those involved in conservation, and especially those acquainted with the issue believe that widening the NH 37 would not be in the long-term interest of the park, which already has several other problems like poaching, encroachment and loss of terrain to erosion by the Brahmaputra.

According to Dr Bibhab Talukdar, a member of the National Board for Wildlife, simply expanding the highway to four lanes would definitely challenge the safe movement of wildlife. Adding more lanes would not just increase the width of asphalt to be crossed by animals, but also encourage vehicles to move fast.

He believes that existing statistics of road kills involving wildlife near Kaziranga should be seriously considered before any plan of widening the highway is embraced by the NHAI. “We, however, are open to consider a proposal where technology and investment could be brought in to ensure that highway improvement could be carried out while protecting the movement of wildlife,” he added.

Noted wildlife biologist Kashmira Kakati is among those who believe that creating a four-lane highway would irreparably harm the long-term interest of the Unesco World Heritage Site and the future of the wildlife therein.

She discounted allegations that some environmentalists by opposing the widening of the highway, were hampering development efforts. “With the state of the environment that is upon us already, a day will come when we will probably owe the very air our children are left breathing, to these environmentalists,” she remarked.

Some other well-wishers of Kaziranga, said that in case the existing highway was merely widened there is every possibility that the park would suffer from increasing noise and air pollution thus adversely affecting the local tourism business.