PWD unhappy with Nagarahole National Park plea for humps

Madikeri: Despite captive elephant, Rowdy Ranga being run down by a speeding bus on the Hunsur-Gonnikoppa road recently, local officials of the Public Works Department are not happy with the Nagarahole National Park's suggestion for road humps on the 10-km highway that passes through its Hunsur and Anechowkoor ranges. They claim the road humps could be unsafe for drivers and leave them vulnerable to accidents.

But they have agreed to install signages at eight points every 200-meters near the Mathigodu Elephant Camp in the Anechowkoor range that Rowdy Ranga belonged to. The Nagarahole Park officials had asked for road humps on the Hunsur-Gonnikoppa highway after a bus ran over an Indian Bison on it in June 2015.

But the PWD officials believe road humps are not the only solution to the problem of wild animals being killed by speeding vehicles, and recall that a two -wheeler rider was killed not too long ago near the Anechowkoor range after he fell off his bike on hitting a road hump. They have , however, agreed to forward a report by the Kodagu Deputy Commissioner, the Superintendent of Police and the Regional Transport Officer (RTO) asking for road humps on the highway to their seniors and do as they are told.

Rowdy Ranga was killed near the Mathigodu Elephant Camp by a speeding private bus that hit him while he was foraging in the forests nearby. The bus itself was barely damaged and the passengers escaped unharmed. The jumbo’s death was only the latest of many wildlife kills on the roads passing through the national park, where night traffic has not been banned as yet.