If the proposal gets the nod it would be the first in the country If the innovative proposal of constructing a wildlife overpass, that has been forwarded to the State Government by the Department of Forest here, gets the official nod, it will permanently end incidents of deer getting crushed under wheels of zooming vehicles on the national highway even as the herbivores move out of their habitat at Gangaikondan in search of food and water. It has been found that the thorn shrub forests on both sides of the national highway near Gangaikondan were found to be housing a sizable spotted deer population. The Department of Forest, with the objective of protecting them from being poached or hunted down by stray dogs, declared it as a ‘reserve forest area’. After incidents of deer being run over by speeding vehicles became frequent, a long wall was constructed along the western boundary of the reserve forest on the eastern side of the highway, having an extent of 288.40 hectare, and barbed wire fencing was provided on the other three sides. Though these protective measures brought down the frequency of mishaps, accidents continued as the animals made their way out of the reserve forest area through the damaged portions of the wall and wire fence as well. The deer that cross the road successfully were hunted for meat by poachers or stray dogs in the forest between Gangaikondan and Abhishekapatti on the Tirunelveli – Tenkasi Highway. To completely avoid this, District Forest Officer C.H. Padma has forwarded a proposal of constructing wildlife overpass to connect the Gangaikondan reserve forest on both sides of the Tirunelveli – Madurai National Highway so that the animals can safely cross this busy thoroughfare. “It is an excellent arrangement, which has been successfully implemented in countries like South Africa and Australia. As the extremely wide overpass with the native plants of the region and with adequately tall protective bio walls would look like the extended portion of the reserve forest area, the animals would not be scared by zooming vehicles on the road underneath. If we can create adequate fodder and water resources in the reserve forest areas on both sides of the national highway, we can even stop the animals going to Ramaiyanpatti or Abhishekapatti where they face serious threats from stray dogs,” Ms. Padma told ‘ The Hindu ’ here on Wednesday. If this proposal, forwarded to the Tamil Nadu Government along with the proposal on ‘Gangaikondan deer habitat development’, is sanctioned, it will be the first of its kind in the country and an eye-opener for forest officials working across India.