Thiruvananthapuram: The skywalk that connects the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur is perhaps the world’s most awe-inspiring. But the 19 skywalks across the 15-kilometre stretch of National Highway 17 that pass right through the centre of Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary in Idukki are perhaps the most unique. They have saved lives. In 2013, accidental road kills of animals along the 15-km stretch was 85 in five months. Bonnet macaques, tufted-grey langurs, striped palm squirrels, grizzled giant squirrel rats, leopard cats, civet cats and slender loris were frequently crushed under the tyres of passing vehicles. Now, after the skywalks or ‘canopy bridges’ have been laid, the deaths have come down to virtually zero.
Chinnar’s ‘canopy bridges’ will soon be taken up as model for sanctuaries and national parks across the country. The huge death toll was expected as the average number of vehicles passing through the sanctuary a day is 894. “To reduce the accidents, we had put speed breakers ignoring public protests. Things got better for nocturnal animals. But arboreal animals like squirrels that were active during the day continued to be killed,” said P M Prabhu, the Chinnar assistant wildlife warden.
A canopy bridge across the road was Munnar wildlife warden G Prasad's brainchild. “Systematic survey was carried out along the road to find out the exact location where the rope overpass has to be erected. It has been observed that many locations are frequently used by the arboreal animals to cross the road. Each species were observed separately,” Mr Prabhu said.
From below, the canopy bridge looks like a floating ladder between two tall tress on either side of the road. The bridge is constructed with high quality nylon parallel ropes, the two external ones always straight and parallel to each other, while the internal ones are connected with about 1 to 1.5 meter bamboo sticks and tied with iron twine. For certain bridges, in areas frequented by squirrels, the base has a net covering. All the 19 canopy bridges were created and then installed by the tribal members of Tribal trekkers Eco Development Committee.
