Highways through our national parks are where the wanderer meets the wild - too often in fatal collisions. Are these roads really necessary?

About 40 animals a night were getting whacked on the 15-kilometre stretch of highway through the Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary here in Chachoengsao. So they closed the road from 9am to 5pm - temporarily.

The trial closure, from March 15 to April 16, saved hundreds of lives. Not a single deer, elephant or pheasant was killed.

The people who run the sanctuary, Thailand's last and largest forest reserve, are elated, and they're now awaiting a Highways Department verdict on their request for a permanent closure.

Highway 3259 has long been a lethal slice through the 600,000-rai sanctuary, says its research chief Sawai Wanghongsa, surveying the habitat of 290 bird species, 222 different types of mammals and 90 assorted reptiles, plus recently discovered new species of crabs and bees.

Humans die on the road here too. Between 2000 and 2006, there were 10 vehicle collisions with animals in which three elephants and three people died. The pachyderm fatalities were Thailand's first in decades.

In 1999 alone, that 15-kilometre stretch witnessed almost 14,500 animal deaths, usually in the dark. News media picked up on the elephant killed in a 2001 hit-and-run with a large vehicle. The following year a pickup driver was killed, along with the elephant he struck.

This was also where, last January 5, about a dozen elephants barricaded and looted a lorry that was hauling sugarcane. "Fortunately, officials arrived in time and the driver was rescued," Sawai says.

Freak incidents like that, combined with the mounting animal death toll, finally prompted the trial closure.

"The results were impressive," Sawai says, noting that "only" 23 vehicles became stranded during the shutdown hours.

Drivers finding the road closed were offered free accommodation for the night, and those who needed to keep moving were shown other routes. Several of the national parks have roads cutting through them, and more roads are planned, much to the dismay of environmentalists concerned that the indigenous animals will become disoriented by the intrusion and thus be in danger.

Among the ecologists who have managed to at least stall some road projects is Voraluck Sriyai, manager of the Sueb Nakasathien Foundation. She took on the highway planners who were eyeing Kaeng Krung National Park in Surat Thani.

"The road would destroy the premium water source and lead to forest encroachment when it brings people here to claim the woodlands," she warns.

In the past, Voraluck says, roads were cut through the parks for justifiable reasons. Now they serve mainly to boost tourism. "If you talk about tourism income, you have to consider the immense impact on the environment as well."

The citizens of Umphang in Tak province wanted a road cut through Kamphaengphet's Mae Wong National Park so they could get to the hospital just beyond it. The proposal was scrapped when it was pointed out that the hospital already met the needs of the people of Umphang readily and efficiently.

Environmentalists suspected that local businessmen had put the residents up to it.

Planned roads have been stymied in some locations, but only the Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary has taken the step of closing an existing road.

"There has been no serious accident involving humans and animals anywhere else but here, the last and largest of the forest preserves," Sawai says. He adds that whenever the authorities consider building a new park road, they should carefully think about how difficult it would be to shut them down later if necessary. A great deal of red tape and persuasion is involved.

The temporary closure proved successful enough that the province and the National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department have endorsed the proposal to make it permanent. The decision rests with the Highways Department.

"All roads cutting through forests cause problems," conservation department director-general Chalermsak Wanichsomsak acknowledges.

He cites problems with Highway 304 in Khao Yai National Park, which cuts through Tab Laan-Khao Yai, part of the Queen Sirikit Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest.

This is a World Heritage site, but to retain that global protection, the administrators of Khao Yai National Park must build a tunnel beneath the road for animals, and this too has been stalled due to environmental concerns.

Chalermsak says he's ready to fight against new park-road projects and intends to urge the Highways Department to stop building roads through national parks.

"I won't allow highway construction - even if the park is standing in a highway's path - unless there is full discussion about it first," he says.

He wants to see roads going around parks, even if it means more travelling time. The safety of the animals comes first.

Chularat Saengpassa

The Nation

Chachoengsao