Centre gives green signal to road project in Andhra Pradesh tiger corridor

The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has recommended the use of more than 40 hectares of forest land from the tiger corridor connecting the Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR) and the Sri Venkateswara National Park in Andhra Pradesh for the development of expressways, economic corridors and inter-corridors under the second phase of Bharatmala Pariyojana, according to the minutes of a meeting held last month. Spread over 3,296.31 square kilometres, the NSTR is the country's largest tiger reserve. It is contiguous with Telangana's Amrabad tiger reserve and accounts for the largest tiger population (around 72) in the Eastern Ghat landscape. According to the minutes of the meeting, the length of the road passing through the tiger corridor under the project is about five kilometres. Three tunnels, four minor bridges, seven viaducts and two culverts have been suggested as mitigation structures in the project proposal. The length of the animal passage is around three kilometre