Fragmentation of Rajaji National Park

Fragmentation of Rajaji National Park:

Rajaji National Park is attempting to secure corridors for its wildlife, elephants in particular, though this continues to be a cumbersome and challenging task. These corridors have been fragmented by villages, by a national highway, water channels, railway tracks, transmission lines and even an Army ammunition dump. These corridors are being shrunk and fragmented, posing a grave threat to tigers as well elephants.

An elephant moves long distances and as it is large in size, a corridor that is adequate for elephants is suitable for every other wildlife species in the forest such as tigers, deer or other smaller animals. Uttarakhand has a sizable population of both tigers and elephants, and therefore wildlife corridors hold significance, particularly as it is right beside Jim Corbett National Park, which continues to be a habitat with one of the densest population of tigers in India.

Corridors are valuable tools for wildlife conservation, as they enable animals to connect to different landscapes. Fragmentation of such corridors could have harmful effects in the long run. Some such effects include genetic isolation, fragmentation of habitat within the same forest and increasing levels human-elephant conflict in adjoining areas. Most of the wild animals and elephants have been threatened mainly by the railway track and national highways, which pass between the forests. As the city of Rishikesh is located right between the East and West areas of Rajaji National park, the path of many wild animals is obstructed. A solution to this problem that is being worked on, is building an overpass for traffic so animals can use a corridor to travel from one side to another. This is likely to take many yea...

... middle of paper ...

...ss are the following: -

- Commercial forestry, which involves cutting roads through forests and harvesting (by cutting down) trees that were previously important sources of shelter or food for some species.

- Dams, which change patterns of flow for rivers, alter water temperatures and may prevent fish from swimming upstream to spawn.

- Farmers clear land, withdrawing large quantities of water from local sources and introducing pesticides and chemical fertilizers to the environment.

- Urban development, which clears land and paves it. This changes local water cycles by increasing the surface runoff and reducing the supplies of groundwater.

Wildlife at Rajaji national park suffers from habitat loss and destruction because of the fragmentation of the park, obstruction of wildlife corridors and because it’s east and west section are divided by the city of Rishikesh.