Article in press - uncorrected proof
Mammalia 74 (2010): 427–430
2010 by Walter de Gruyter • Berlin • New York. DOI 10.1515/MAMM.2010.059
Short Note
Mammal mortality due to road vehicles in
Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve,
Andhra Pradesh, India
Satyaranjan Behera1 and Jimmy Borah1,2,*
1
Wildlife Institute of India, PO Box 18, Chandrabani,
Dehradun-248001, Uttarakhand, India,
e-mail: jimmyborah@gmail.com
2
C/o WWF-India, Parbati Nagar, Tezpur-784001, Assam,
India
*Corresponding author
Keywords: dead animal; protected area; road kills; road
mortality; scheduled species.
Growth of human population and the resulting expansion of
anthropogenic pressures into different wildlife habitat areas
have increased conflicts between wildlife and human in
recent decades. One area of particular concern is wildlife-
vehicle collisions, which often results in mortality of wildlife
species. The occurrence of dead animals killed on the roads
is thus a common phenomenon. Road-kill counts have been
used to determine mortality caused by vehicles on wildlife
populations (Newmark et al. 1996, Romin and Bissonette
1996) and as an index of abundance for mammals across
seasons (Davies et al. 1987) and years (Hicks 1993). Roads
are known to cause mortality of animals due to accidents
with vehicular traffic, habitat loss due to deforestation, affect
animal movement, cause change in animal behavior, and
cause ecological effects such as fragmentation (Fahrig et al.
1995, Goosem 1997, Forman and Alexander 1998, Trom-
bulak and Frisswell 2000, Daveley and Stouffer 2001, Ser-
rano et al. 2002).
There is general awareness of the prevalence of mortality
due to vehicular traffic of free-ranging vertebrates in India,
and reports of such mortality are increasing (Sharma 1988,
Dhindsa et al. 1988, Gokula 1997, Kumara et al. 2000, Raj-
vanshi et al. 2001, Vijayakumar et al. 2001). These studies
have either listed kills (Sharma 1988, Gokula 1997, Raj-
vanshi et al. 2001) or addressed concerns to fauna in pro-
tected areas with special reference to effect of habitat on
patterns of road-kill (Vijayakumar et al. 2001) and season on
select fauna (Kumara et al. 2000). Some studies have
explored community structure of vulnerable taxa along roads
in an agricultural landscape in an effort to understand the
potential species that might be affected by vehicular traffic
(Dhindsa et al. 1988). None of these studies have information
on the proportion of species killed in a protected area, such
as tiger reserves, by vehicular traffic. We studied some
aspects of faunal mortalities due to vehicular traffic in
Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, in South Central
India. The aim of this study was to identify the species of
mammals which were most affected by vehicular traffic,
because mammal road-kills in the area was generally fre-
quent and common.
Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Wildlife Sanctuary/Tiger
Reserve (TR) in Andhra Pradesh is located at east of Hyder-
abad in the Indian Subcontinent (longitude: 798309E–
798289E; latitude: 158539N–168439N) (Appendix 1). It
extends over an area of 3568.09 km2. The altitude of the
reserve ranges from 500 to 850 m. The TR is traversed by
several public roads and a state highway. The forest type in
the TR is mainly southern tropical dry mixed deciduous for-
est (Champion and Seth 1968). However, dry deciduous
scrub, dry euphorbia scrubs are also found. The forest con-
sists of miscellaneous timber species such as Nallamaddi
(Terminalia tomentosa), Chirumanu (Anogeissus latifolia),
Bandaru (Adina cordifolia), Teak (Tectona grandis), etc. San-
dal wood (Santalum album) and a number of medicinal
plants are also found and the TR has a variety of faunal
diversity (Appendix 1).
One road passes through the reserve and runs for a length
of 140 km, whereas another road runs along the southern
boundary of the reserve over a length of 50 km. Average
vehicles plying in the road per day varies from 10 to more
than 100 vehicles during the festival seasons. Commercial
vehicles such as buses and trucks also run in the road running
through the TR. There are approximately 100 villages in and
around the reserve with a large number of villagers residing
in it (Jain 2000).
A survey was conducted from February to September
2007 to determine the native mammals killed by vehicle col-
lision. Road-kill samples were observed and recorded on the
state road that runs through the TR. Three days a week were
spent driving on these roads checking for road-kills. Both
sides of road were scanned by two observers (one side at a
time) using a vehicle. Mammals found dead along the roads
were recorded by species, location, and date. Eight of the
carcasses could not be identified and were not included in
2010/049
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428 S. Behera and J. Borah: Road killed mammals

the data. All road-kills were removed after recording to avoid
double counts. Additional data on road-kills were collected
from forest department officials from 2001 to 2006. This
information was verified by looking at the photographs and
where confirmed were included in the study. We calculated
the percentage of species killed by vehicles during the period
by estimating species-wise road-kill from total observations.
A total of 142 individuals belonging to 20 species of road-
killed mammals were recorded (Table 1). In total, 26 road-
kills occurred during the period of survey from February to
September 2007, whereas 116 road-kills recorded were from
the forest department data. It was observed that small-sized
and nocturnal mammals were the prime victims of the vehi-
cles. The most frequent road-kill we encountered and record-
ed was that of Indian Hare (ns40), followed by Indian Bush
Rat (ns20), and Indian Palm Squirrel (ns11).
Roads and vehicular traffic seem to be an important factor
for mortality of mammals in Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam TR.
Studies have shown that roads act as barriers for movement
of animals and affect the animal populations through which
they pass (Forman and Alexander 1998) and the most notice-
able effect of roads on wildlife is mortality caused by col-
lisions with motor vehicles (Malo et al. 2004). Studies in
different countries showed that mammals are major road haz-
ards (Hubbard et al. 2000, Sielecki 2004, Seiler 2005) and
the traffic-related mortality is highly detrimental, especially
for species with declining populations (Spellerberg 1998). It
is therefore essential to quantify the enormity of effect due
to vehicular traffic on mammals, in particular, and wildlife,
in general.
Of the 20 species of road-killed mammals in the study,
three species, namely, Leopard, Sloth Bear, and Rusty Spot-
ted Cat, are of conservation concern and are listed under
Schedule I species in the Wildlife Protection Act (1972) of
India. Previous studies of road-kill mammals in India carried
out in protected and forested areas have also documented
deaths of many species of conservation concern (Kumara et
al. 2000, Rajvanshi et al. 2001). The effects of road-kill are
believed to be minimal for populations of common species,
but there could be an impact on threatened (Scott et al. 1999)
or conservation concern species. Most of the road-killed
mammal species we encountered were ground-dwelling, noc-
turnal and therefore could have resulted in a high mortality
rate.
We only looked at mortality of mammals during the sur-
vey and recommend further studies on other faunal mortal-
ities due to vehicles in the area. The study should also
include other taxa to find a better conclusion and to see
whether there is a trend in the mortalities across year, season,
and traffic volume. We suggest the following measures for
minimizing or mitigating such incidents.
• Provide check posts with regular security at the both ends
of the roads within the TR.
• Reduce and limit the vehicle speed within the TR area.
A speed and time limit should be set for vehicles to cover
the entire stretch of the road that runs within the TR, with
regular checks in between the stretch, especially at night.
Anyone violating the rule should be strictly penalized.
• Installing speed breakers or speed bumps at fixed inter-
vals to deter speeding vehicles.
• Signage depicting wildlife crossing the road should be
placed at proper places. Adequate signboards on the pos-
sible turns, spots of feeding, and drinking should remind
the drivers to reduce speed and of the presence of wild
animals on the road.

Table 1 Road-killed mammals in Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Andhra Pradesh, India (2001–2007).

Sl. no. Mammals Genus Species No. of road kills Percentage occurrence
1 Leopard Panthera pardus 3 2.11
2 Rusty Spotted Cat Prionailurus rubiginosus 4 2.82
3 Jungle Cat Felis chaus 10 7.04
4 Bonnet Macaque Macaca radiata 2 1.41
5 Common Langur Semnopithecus entellus 1 0.70
6 Rhesus Macaque Macaca mulatta 7 4.93
7 Golden Jackal Canis aureus 3 2.11
8 Dhole Cuon alpinus 4 2.82
9 Chital Axis axis 2 1.41
10 Sambar Rusa unicolor 1 0.70
11 Small Indian Civet Viverricula indica 9 6.34
12 Asian Palm Civet Paradoxurus hermaphroditus 2 1.41
13 Small Indian Mongoose Herpestes javanicus 5 3.52
14 Indian Crested Porcupine Hystrix indica 4 2.82
15 Indian Hare Lepus nigricollis 40 28.17
16 Indian Bush Rat Golunda ellioti 20 14.08
17 Indian Palm Squirrel Funambulus palmarum 11 7.75
18 Wild Boar Sus scrofa 8 5.63
19 Madras Tree Shrew Anathana ellioti 2 1.41
20 Sloth Bear Melursus ursinus 4 2.82
Total 142
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We suggest and recommend that future research efforts
should examine more closely animal behavior and habitat
use in areas with high frequency of road-kill. Locally, topog-
raphy, vegetation and road characteristics can jointly produce
conditions where certain mitigation measures will work and
combining measures such as public awareness, warning
signs, crossing structures, and providing additional seasonal
feeding areas could aid in effectively reducing collisions and
mortality of the mammals by vehicles.
This study suggests that mortality rates due to vehicles are
noteworthy for mammals in the study area. Species of con-
servation concern such as Leopard and Sloth Bear were
killed by vehicular traffic. Many more studies from other
protected and forested areas are required to ascertain the
actual magnitude of road kills in relation to populations of
particular species. Considering that the Government of India
is undertaking several large-scale expansions of the road
Appendix
Appendix 1 Map of the study area.
S. Behera and J. Borah: Road killed mammals 429
network in the country, more studies are required before we
can hope to better understand the impact of roads on wildlife
in the Indian countryside and forested areas.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department and
the staff of Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve for assisting us
in collecting the field data and also for sharing their knowledge and
information. The authors would also like to express their gratitude
to Dr. Y.V. Jhala and Qamar Qureshi from the Wildlife Institute of
India for providing us the opportunity to work in the tiger moni-
toring project which enabled us to visualize this study. We would
also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their positive and
constructive comments which made the manuscript more
meaningful.
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430 S. Behera and J. Borah: Road killed mammals
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