Proposal cleared for 191-km stretch of NH 209 in Karnataka. Wildlife activists in Tamil Nadu are not happy with the Central Government’s decision to permit the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to widen a 191-km stretch of NH 209 in Karnataka. The Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee, a high-level panel of the Centre, has cleared the proposal for widening the stretch at a cost of Rs. 693 crore within Karnataka border of the Highway that connects Bangalore and Dindigul via Chamarajanagar and Coimbatore. The project, sources said, involves laying of a two-lane paved shouldered road between Tamil Nadu border and Kanakapura Bypass, and a four-lane road from Kanakapura bypass to NICE Road junction off Bangalore. The project was sanctioned due to persistent demands in Karnataka that the NH be widened to absorb the high density of motor traffic. However, there are concerns that wildlife could be disturbed since the Satyamangalam Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu is contiguous to Karnataka’s Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary, considered a critical tiger habitat, according to K. Mohan Raj, coordinator, Tamil Nadu Green Movement. The entire volume of vehicles that would utilise the widened stretch of the national highway on Karnataka side had to necessarily pass through the hilly part on the Tamil Nadu side. Since two tiger reserves were close to one another, the impact created at any side of the border would be felt in the habitat as a whole, Mr. Mohan Raj explained. Forest Department sources said there was no indication of any survey for widening of road on the Tamil Nadu side. But, there were already demands within Tamil Nadu for conversion of the stretch from Annur in Coimbatore district to Sathyamangalam inclusive of the Dhimbam ghat section into a two-lane road. Since the Centre was prepared to make huge investments for strengthening road connectivity, there was no reason why new alignments that would not affect the wildlife should not be explored. Increasing frequency of human-animal conflict in Dharmapuri district, particularly after the construction of the four-lane road across forested areas, was a tell-tale sign of the consequences that would arise out of the widening of NH 209, Mr. Mohan Raj cautioned.