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Good practice Imported

NH-44 Kanha–Pench Wildlife Underpasses — Camera-Trap Verified Tiger Corridor (Madhya Pradesh, India)

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Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 76% 33/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Nine underpasses beneath NH-44 through Pench Tiger Reserve, including two 750 m structures, recorded 468 camera-trap images across 15 species in a 90-day Wildlife Institute of India study, with over ten tigers documented using the crossings to keep the Kanha-Pench corridor open.

468
Camera-trap images recorded (90-day survey)
15
Species recorded
10+
Individually identifiable tigers using underpasses
9
Dedicated wildlife underpasses built
25 underpasses across 10 highways
Further underpasses sanctioned nationally (2016) (2016)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Wildlife Institute of India (WII); National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)
Period
2016-2020
Keywords
road ecology, tiger conservation, wildlife corridor, infrastructure monitoring

Context

The Kanha and Pench tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh anchor one of central India's most important tiger populations, but a 2012 GIS least-cost-path study found the roughly 145–200 km corridor between them constrained by "weak links" as narrow as 4 km, with National Highway 44 cutting directly through Pench Tiger Reserve.

Objectives

India's road authorities built nine dedicated wildlife underpasses along the NH-44 stretch through Pench, including two structures 750 m long, to keep the Kanha–Pench corridor passable for tigers and other wildlife despite the highway.

Activities

The underpasses were built to Wildlife Institute of India (WII) specifications with natural soil substrate to encourage animal use, and a WII camera-trap monitoring programme then tracked which species actually used the crossings over a 90-day survey window.

Results

The survey recorded 468 animal images across 15 species, including more than ten individually identifiable tigers using the underpasses within months of monitoring beginning, alongside leopards, wild dogs, gaur and sambar.

Conclusions

The Kanha–Pench underpasses became a reference design for India's wider highway-mitigation effort: in 2016 the roads ministry sanctioned 25 further underpasses across 10 additional national highways, and subsequent corridor-mapping work has identified some 150 tiger corridors nationally, only 26 of which had previously been formally recognised.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M) — National highway infrastructure investment (two 750 m structures among nine underpasses); no aggregate cost figure given in sources.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Built and monitored 2016–2020; design replicated nationally from 2016.
Staffing & skills
Wildlife Institute of India (WII) scientists (design specification and camera-trap monitoring), National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) construction teams

Conditions for success

  • Prior GIS least-cost-path corridor study identifying the critical bottleneck (Rathore et al. 2012)
  • Underpasses built to WII specifications with natural soil substrate to encourage animal use
  • Two of the nine underpasses built long enough (750 m) to function as genuine wildlife crossings

Common failure modes

  • The camera-trap monitoring window (90 days) is short, limiting confidence in long-term usage patterns
  • No independent certification scheme exists for the underpass design

Where it fits

Governance type
national government agency (road authority + wildlife institute)
Scale
regional (single highway corridor, replicated nationally)
Income level
lower-middle-income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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