Status, characteristics and factors affecting roadkills on NH-64: The Dandi Path, Navsari, Gujarat, India

Roads are among the significant threats to the conservation of wild mammals across the globe. In the present study, we assess roadkill, its characteristics, and factors affecting their presence on a stretch of NH-64 of Navsari district. To evaluate roadkills, we monitored the road weekly; whereas to assess the factors affecting road presence, we followed used-unused sampling. A total of 70 roadkills were encountered from a sampling effort of 336 kilometres from October 2021 to March 2022. Reptiles were the most affected taxonomic groups, followed by amphibians and mammals.Among reptiles, the garden lizard was the most killed species, while the common frog and five stripped squirrel were the most killed among amphibians and mammals. Maximum kills happened during March, while maximum kills happened in the agricultural habitat. Shrub cover, ground cover, distance from the road edge, and distance from human habitation affected roadkill positively, while canopy cover was related negatively. The present study will act as a baseline for the future, and help fill the knowledge gap in roadkill studies in a human-dominated landscape.