COIMBATORE: The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) India has requested the state government to construct an overpass from Kallar bridge to the second hairpin bend on Mettupalayam – Coonoor road to check human-elephant conflict.
WWF-India has been studying the Kallar elephant corridor since 2007, landscape coordinator D Boominathan said.
“The corridor is on the busy Mettupalayam – Coonoor road, which is used by more than 8,500 vehicles a day.
Apart from elephants, leopards, deer, sloth bear, guar and small wild animals use the corridor.
Due to heavy vehicle flow, the animals are forced to wait to cross the road, causing man-animal conflict.
Wild animals should not be disturbed.
So, we want the forest department to construct an overpass for about 2km from Kallar bridge to the second hairpin bend,” he said.
In November 2014, former Coimbatore collector Archana Patnaik and forest department officials inspected Kallar with the aim to construct an overpass.
Officials said that the overpass would cross private lands and require land acquisition.
The government would spend Rs 160 crore for the project, they said.
But there was no further development.