- Nepal is expanding a 115-kilometer (71-mile) section of its East-West Highway from two to four lanes, aiming to improve travel times and connectivity.
- The expanded highway passes through 11 forest patches near Chitwan National Park, raising concerns about wildlife safety and mobility.
- Budget constraints prevented the construction of wildlife overpasses and limited modifications to 12 key structures for animal crossings.
- Conservationists worry that without proper safeguards, the expanded highway could lead to increased wildlife-vehicle collisions and habitat fragmentation, potentially undermining conservation efforts in the region.
NARAYANGHAT, Nepal — Amid the clatter of drills and honking trucks hauling cement, sand and concrete, vehicles large and small navigate muddy tracks and potholes on the Narayanghat-Butwal road, a vital stretch of Nepal’s East-West Highway connecting the eastern and western frontiers of the rectangular-shaped country.
Travel time on this 115-kilometer (71-mile) section, which is currently infamous for delays and traffic jams, has more than doubled compared with the days before construction. According to the contract, work was supposed to start in March 2019 and complete by July 2022. The deadline was first extended to August 2023 and then to July 2024 with an extension of one year. But the contractor is yet to complete the work.
But after the two lanes are expanded to four, traffic will move swiftly, facilitating quicker and smoother travel — for people. But for the local wildlife, it poses a risk to their lives in addition to posing mobility challenges, which may not have been adequately addressed, conservation officials say.
“As the highway passes through 11 forest patches spanning around 60 km [37 mi] on the buffer zone of Chitwan National Park, animals are likely to cross the road regularly,” said Hari Bhadra Acharya, chief of the planning section at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. “The safeguard measures adopted aren’t adequate,” he said.
In 2018, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), through a decision of its board, is providing $186.8 million finance for the $256.5 highway expansion work under its South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Roads Improvement Project. When finished, this section of road, first constructed as a small two-lane route in the 1970s, will enable cars to reach speeds of up to 100 kph (62 mph), which is more than twice the present average.
The ADB listed the work as a Category A project, as it was likely to have major negative impacts on the environment. However, when the deal was sealed, neither the ADB nor the Nepal government had guidelines on the construction of wildlife-friendly linear infrastructure such as roads, canals, railways and transmission lines.
“During several rounds of discussions with road and forest officials, we made various suggestions,” Acharya said. “This included the construction of elevated lanes in areas where animals are likely to cross frequently.”
The suggestion is also reflected in the Biodiversity Baseline Assessment and Mitigation Strategy the project commissioned following a review of the project’s environmental impact assessment by the U.S. Agency for International Development — the U.S. government is one of the biggest shareholders of the ADB and has also invested millions of dollars in programs in Nepal to help boost its tiger population. The USAID review found that the EIA, which identified only five passages (two culverts and three small bridges), was grossly inadequate.
During the window between the project deal and its implementation, major things happened in Nepal and beyond. Nepal’s government worked on its first wildlife-friendly infrastructure guidelines, and the ADB and the Wildlife Institute of India prepared foundational guidelines for transport projects. Nepal’s government had been sitting on the guidelines for a long time, but was forced to approve it after a one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) fell into a pit and died in Chitwan in January 2022.
According to the 2020 report, road kills due to wildlife-vehicle collisions are expected to rise sharply as the road work progresses. By 2030, the highway could act as a total barrier for animal movement, severing critical wildlife corridors and fragmenting populations on both sides of the road. This fragmentation threatens to limit population expansion and disrupt the dispersal of young animals, essential for maintaining healthy genetic diversity.
To mitigate these kinds of impacts, it suggested that although three areas — Daunne, Dumkibas and Bhagra — needed overpasses, building such a structure in Daunne, which is directly connected to Chitwan National Park, wouldn’t be feasible. But it would be feasible in Dumkibas and Bhagra.
It also identified 31 planned drainage structures as potential wildlife underpasses, said Jhamak Bahadur Karki, who led the BBA. However, due to budget constraints, the list was ultimately narrowed down to 12 key structures — bridges and culverts — whose design could be modified to better accommodate wildlife.
Budgetary constraints are also the reason the project doesn’t have immediate plans to build any overpasses for wildlife, said Shova Giri, assistant project director at the SASEC-ADB Project Directorate. She said that as the project’s financial deal had already been signed before the BBA was carried out and the guidelines on infrastructure were formulated, it’s not possible to look for additional financing. Work on the 12 structures were also carried out using the variation amount (around 10% of the total budget), she added.
This lack of overpasses in key forest patches with animal movement could deal a severe blow to conservation efforts, said Acharya, who was the warden at Chitwan National Park when the 2022 rhino death took place. “The future generation will ask us why we didn’t build an overpass there,” he said.
“Also, say if we want to build an overpass by reworking the road again in the future when a certain number of animals may have already died in collisions, the financial cost will be much higher,” he added.
Referring to Nepal’s first wildlife-friendly underpasses built on the Mugling-Narayanghat road, Acharya said that the simple structures could be considered to be of the first generation, as they facilitated the movement of small animals only. “When we were in discussion about the Narayanghat-Butwal road, I thought we’d move on to the second generation of structures. But sadly, that’s not the case,” he added.
Forest officer Surendra Adhikari from the Department of Forest and Soil Conservation also echoed Acharya. He said that one of the major shortcomings of the project is its failure to construct elevated road sections known for frequent animal crossings. “We’d have to slow down traffic to prevent collisions,” Adhikari admitted. However, doing so would make the whole road expansion work redundant.
Banner Image: A Bengal tiger snarls at tourists in the foreground at a park in India. Image by Rhett Butler/Mongabay.
Nepal’s youngest national park looks to elevated lanes to prevent roadkill
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