Bengaluru-Mysuru highway turns death trap for birds scavenging on dead animals

Bengaluru: The Bengaluru-Mysuru highway (NH 275) is witnessing repeated incidents of bird kills with a conservationist burying at least 40 birds and documenting hundreds of birds hit by vehicles in just over a year.

Conservationist Gouri Shivayogi, who travels between Bengaluru and Mysuru at least once a month, said the highway has become a death trap for scavenger birds, mostly Brahminy kites, black kites, owls, coucals and others, which come to feed on the roadkill.

Gouri began documenting the bird carcasses found during her travel between December 2023 and January 2025, by geotagging the sites and soon identified several hotspots where the bird carcasses were found frequently: the stretch after Bidadi industrial area, Channapatna, near a mosque between Channapatna and Maddur, flyovers in Maddur and Mandya.

Despite repeated efforts, officials at National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) did not take the matter seriously.

In December, Gouri prepared a short report detailing her findings from deaths and hotspots to the peak season of the deaths as well as possible solutions.

“The highest number of carcasses were found in the four months from December to March, while the number of deaths reduced in other months. As per my observation, the birds get hit by vehicles at the starting or end point of the flyover. The NHAI should immediately put up signage to create awareness among drivers,” she said.

Officials in the forest department said the root of the problem, however, is the lack of barriers in preventing animals from straying on to the roads.

“Leopards have been killed by speeding vehicles. We have written to NHAI on the need to provide access for wildlife to crossover from one side to the other. Barriers should be installed to prevent dogs, cats and other animals from crossing the road,” an official said.

Gouri said the chainlink fence installed by NHAI is broken at several places. “This has allowed animals to come on to the highway corridor. I have been trying to reach out to NHAI officials, but they are yet to look into the matter,” she said.

DH sent a detailed query to the regional officer, Bengaluru and the project implementation unit at Ramanagar. None of the officials responded to the query.

Additional principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) Kumar Pushkar said the matter of providing wildlife crossover points had been raised with NHAI.

“We have requested them to restore the animal passages. With regard to the bird deaths, our field officers will inspect the sites to understand the situation. Once the matter is verified, we will explore solutions,” he said.