Road accidents involving stray animals rise by 3 times in C’garh
| Date :29-Nov-2019 |
By K Anand Rao :
BHILAI
Road accidents involving stray animals has increased by three times in the last three years across Chhattisgarh, reveals a statistics by Union Ministry of Road Transport. It is not just bad roads, poorly illuminated thoroughfares or erring commuters that are causing road accidents. Stray animals especially cows and buffalos too have become a potential threat for motorists, plying on National Highway and State Highways in state. In the statistics, a total of 95 accidents and 24 deaths were reported across state in 2016, which involved hitting of stray animals.
In 2017, it rose by 107 accidents and 36 deaths due to stray animals and it has further increased drastically to 303 accidents and 112 deaths in the year 2018 across state. Considerable rise in accidents due to animals also indicates that the stray animals are nowadays not limited to city streets or squares. But, they are straying on State Highways and National Highways while risking its own life and that of the commuters. The study report informed that Uttar Pradesh is in the top position in the chart with 1842 accidents and 933 deaths reported in the year 2018, due to hitting of stray animals on road.
While, Madhya Pradesh stood at second position with 870 accidents and 130 deaths followed by Rajasthan with 659 accidents and 338 deaths; Chhattisgarh stands at fourth place with 303 accidents and 112 deaths and Kerala state is at fifth place with 296 accidents and 35 deaths. Meanwhile, Sikkim, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Pondicherry, Andaman & Nicobar, Chandigarh and Assam are among those States/UTs, where accidents due to stray animals were recorded low and less than 10 accidents of such nature occurred in 2018.On the other hand, the Chhattisgarh state has also recorded rise in number of road accidents due to drunken driving from 86 accidents and 17 deaths in 2017 to 216 accidents and 55 deaths reported in 2018.
Avinash Kumar, NGO volunteer, working for rescue and relief of animals pointed that it is not like commuters intentionally go ahead and hit the animals, people often do not understand that the nervous system of animals are different from humans. He advised that commuters should blow the horn at an animal from a distance, so they would then run away. “If you drive up close to animals and then blow the horn, they may just get anxious and will not be able to run to safety”, Avinash added.Talking to the newspaper, DSP (Traffic), Gurjeet Singh pointed that the department has already instructed all officials and traffic personnel for intensive checking against drunken driving cases and Alco-meter test and other drives are being conducted by traffic department in regular intervals and also on daily basis at outskirt areas of city. He added that when the traffic department notices that the stray animals are roaming on roads, they used to inform civic authority and later the authority concern catch the stray animals by undertaking drive against stray animals. “Nowadays, the stray animals being caught on city streets or national highways by local administration are being transported to Gothan (cattle byres). Commuters should also obey the traffic rules and they need to ply cautiously on road for safety of stray animals and their life also”, appealed DSP Singh.