When Lives Collide

On an unlit highway, even a single stray dog can turn a routine drive into a life-or-death choice. A driver may swerve to avoid the animal, only to crash and cause greater harm. For many families in India, this is not a distant possibility but a lived tragedy.But behind every “accident” lies a deeper story: neglected animals, broken systems, and infrastructure that hasn’t kept pace with our traffic realities. The challenge is not the animals themselves. It is how we as a society manage our roads, our urban planning, and our responsibility toward the beings who share space with us.

The Numbers Speak Clearly

• 60% of road crashes with animals involve stray dogs (Insurance claim data, 2024)

• 33% involve cattle (Urban crash data, major Indian cities)

• 404 deaths in 5½ years in Chhattisgarh alone (State records)

• 900+ deaths from cattle collisions in Haryana (2018–2022) nearly one every two days.

These are not “freak accidents.” They are systemic failures repeated across states.

Why Are Animals on Our Roads?

• Street dogs (10 million+ across India): Territorial and reactive to fast-moving vehicles. Chasing is instinctual, not malicious.

• Stray cattle (5 million+, 2019 census): Large, slow, often resting in shaded bends or medians. Almost invisible until too late at night.

• Wildlife (elephants, deer, langurs, monkeys): Forced onto highways due to shrinking forest buffers. Kerala and Assam have piloted canopy bridges and underpasses, but most regions lack such solutions.Every animal on the road is a signal of systemic neglect: of shelters, sterilization programs, forest corridors, fencing, and community management.

Infrastructure Matters: The SpiceJet Lesson

When a wild animal strayed onto Jabalpur’s runway due to broken fencing, the world noticed. But the same story unfolds daily on our highways and village roads. Crashes in fog, rain, or monsoon nights are 40% more fatal (Punjab study), yet most stretches lack reflective fencing, proper crossings, or safe shelters for animals.

A Systems View: Where the Burden Falls

• Drivers: Carry the immediate burden of avoiding harm in split seconds.

• Animals: Bear the cost of neglect, treated as obstacles rather than beings.

• Communities: Struggle with overpopulation of strays and abandoned cattle.

• Governments: Often underinvest in prevention (shelters, sterilization, fencing, wildlife corridors).

A systems lens shows us this is not a driver vs. animal issue; it is a shared systems challenge requiring shared responsibility.

What Citizens Can Do

• Drive mindfully: Slow down in high-risk zones: foggy bends, monsoon nights, shaded roadside areas.

• Support sterilization & shelters: Partner with local NGOs; ask city leaders where the budgets are going.

• Report unsafe zones: Broken fencing, poorly lit stretches, or wildlife crossings need immediate attention.

• Shift the narrative: Speak of animals as co-inhabitants of our spaces, not as “hazards.”

Our Goal

Let us work toward roads where:

• Sacred cows are cared for, not left wandering into traffic.

• Playful dogs are sheltered, not chased off headlights.

• Wildlife is free to roam in their forests, not forced onto tarmac. This is not about removing animals. It is about repairing the systems: urban planning, traffic design, community responsibility, that have let both animals and people down.

Every life saved, be it a human or an animal, is proof enough that compassion and systems thinking can coexist on our roads.