Early signs of wildlife using underpasses along Delhi-Dehradun eway, shows study
· Scroll
The Wildlife Institute of India has documented early evidence of wildlife using underpasses built along the Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor, a 200-km expressway that has been operational since 2025 and officially inaugurated last month, in April.
Visit tr-sport.bond for more information.
The team studied a 20-km stretch, which is a crucial biodiversity area in the Terai landscape where elephants, tigers, great hornbills and king cobras are found. About half of this stretch, 10.97 km, includes elevated and underpass structures for animals to pass, built with the goal of reducing animal mortality, human-animal conflict and population isolation.
The study area forms part of the wider Rajaji-Shivalik landscape, where highways, settlements and other linear infrastructure intersect with elephant movement routes between Rajaji Tiger Reserve, adjoining forest divisions and the Doon valley.
For the study, the corridor was divided into three zones, including a riverbed, a hilly section and a sal forest stretch and data was collected using camera traps and acoustic recorders. About 150 camera traps were used on the structures in the first zone from May 16 to June 24, 2025, covering 40 days. In addition, 29 AudioMoth acoustic recorders were installed across the three zones to record traffic noise and assess how it may be influencing animals and what that meant for underpass...