Wayanad (Kerala): While we, humans, are scrambling to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and fighting the lockdown blues, it is a ‘lockdown bliss’ in the wild.
The animals are in a state of euphoria as there is hardly any vehicle on the roads through the forests and no human intervention. Thanks to the COVID shutdown.
The animals, which have been hiding deeper in the wilds, have started roaming around freely. Now, wild animals and birds can be spotted on the roads and by the roadsides while passing through the forest roads at any time of the day.
The number of roadkill cases, where animals die after being hit by the vehicles on the road, has also dropped significantly.
Muneer, an environmental activist says, "The free movement of wild animals in their habitat near these forest roads, which had continuous vehicular movement, was not possible most of the times. It is understood that a sudden dip in the vehicular movement owing to the lockdown has enabled the wild animals and birds to move around freely. There is a substantial decrease in the number of roadkills that have been happening on a very high scale here. One could perhaps even say that there are no roadkills here, with hardly any vehicles on the road these days."
Wild bears, elephants, deers, peacocks and many more of the wildlife are freely roaming, enjoying the times when the humans are 'locked up’; for a change.
With the tremendous development of tourism in the region, the monkeys have been increasingly depending on eatables given by the tourists, for food. Now, a total absence of tourists in Wayanad has left the monkeys to return to their original habitat looking for food, like wild fruits, after a long time. Environmentalists say this is a very positive indication.
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