[990] Of incorporating wildlife-friendly designs into our highway system

If a person is a member of the Malaysian Nature Society — any green for that matter — this piece of news is especially depressing:

SHAH ALAM: A tapir was killed and two cars were badly damaged in an accident in Puncak Alam early yesterday.

The adult female tapir was crossing the road about 6am when it was hit by a Proton Wira driven by an army personnel.

The impact caused the animal to be flung to the opposite side of the road where it was hit by another car.

Below is the tapir in question:

The Malayan tapir is the icon of MNS.

Construction of highways across biologically diverse ecologies disrupts wildlife movement. It effectively divides a single ecology into two, much like how the Berlin Wall once divided Germany into two. The division is unnatural and adversely affects wildlife. For any pragmatic nature lover that seeks to conform to both modernity and conservation, any freeway crossing through natural wildlife habitat should have barriers to prevent “jaywalking” and special underpasses or over-crossings specially built to allow animals to cross such highway safely.

The idea of constructing crossings for animals in the wild is not new. It has been tested in North America. An MSNBC article, “More wildlife getting helped across the highway“, shows how such crossings enables the free flow of human and wildlife alike, while guaranteeing the safety of both. Below is a visual example of such crossings:

As mentioned in the MSNBC article, the picture was taken at Banff National Park, Canada.

It’s time we incorporate green designs into our highways and prevent future accident, in memory of the tapir. Life, regardless of species, is too precious to waste.