NEW DELHI: All proposals for highways, railway tracks, canals and power lines passing through wildlife sanctuaries and protected areas will now have to include a plan to provide for safe movement of wildlife and allocate budget for animal passages.Linear infrastructure project passing through protected areas and notified eco sensitive zone around protected areas must submit an animal passage plan with a clear budget head to get prior approval of National Board for Wildlife , a standing committee of the apex wildlife protection body has decided.The standing committee, headed by environment minister Harsh Vardhan , made this decision on January 25. This is the first time that animal passage plan has been made binding on implementing agencies of infrastructure projects. The meeting was attended by Wildlife Institute of India director VB Mathur and National Tiger Conservation Authority officials Debabrata Swain and Nishant Verma.So far, they were expected to follow Wildlife Institute of India’s guidelines ‘Eco friendly measures to Mitigate Impacts of Linear Infrastructure on Wildlife’, which provided for modification in infrastructure design to mitigate impact on wildlife. But those guidelines were not obligatory in nature.“Making it mandatory will go a long way in wildlife conservation and even promoting tourism,” former National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) chairman Raghav Chandra told ET. “So far this wasn’t apart of our project proposals. After we commissioned a World Bank study on the issue, NHAI took a view to include animal passages in project proposals,” he said.Over the years, animal passages had become a bone of contention between infrastructure creation agencies and conservationists. The environment ministry official quoted earlier said, “Making it mandatory would also reduce litigation.”Government implementing agencies would now need to have a master plan on animal passages marking out all passages on a physical map of the protected area. The procedure laid down includes field survey by implementing agency teams and involvement of the chief wildlife warden of the state.During the meeting of the standing committee, conservationists had said the nature of linear projects is changing fast, leaving no scope of movement of wildlife from one side to other. “In some cases, it is impossible for wild animals and reptiles to cross high-speed multiple lane roads or wide canals,” HS Singh, member of National Board for Wildlife, said during a presentation before the standing committee.“Practically, such linear projects fragment habitats totally, blocking genetic flow of the fauna in the nature. Over a period, such projects cause loss or extinction of the wildlife,” he said. Safe passage of animals has a direct relation to man-animal conflict.Sometimes unable to cross safely due to high-speed highways and railway tracks, herds of elephants are driven to human habitations, leading to loss of lives and crop.Sources present in the meeting said agencies generally avoid animal passage plan as it means additional costs. “The project proponent always tries to avoid such components in the plan to minimise expenditure, although the cost of the passage plan is a small fraction of the total cost of the project,” an official said.