Effect of road kills on wildlife populations in Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, India

The effects of road traffic mortality on wild animal populations are in many cases hard to estimate and speculate, primarily due to the inaccuracy of the methods employed in studies. On Tiger reserve forest roadways totally, 1450 road kills belonging to 29 species was recorded during different seasonal road mortality in monsoon, winter, summer and pre-monsoon seasons on selected road sections in KMTR and have critically reviewed methods used for estimating the impact of road traffic on migrating animals. Species-specific parameter estimates of mortality, evaluated on ordinary and special day basis counts of road kills, road kills variables, seasonal variations of vehicle entry were positively correlated with the mean body mass of the species. The current status shows that high amount of road kill on forest routes have adverse impact on forest ecosystem that result from increased contact with humans and their behavior.