BENGALURU: As conservationists have objected to the Hubballi-Ankola railway line project, a team of researchers from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) are now undertaking a study of the project proposal.
The WII team is taking up a two-part study. In a report -- “Assessment of Wildlife Values along the proposed Hubballi-Ankola Railway Alignment in Uttara Kannada, Karnataka”, the team stated, “Findings reveal key patterns in biodiversity and seasonal habitat use variation across taxa. The study emphasizes the need for rigorous biodiversity assessments in infrastructure projects to balance conservation and sustainable development.”
This 20-year-old proposal was discussed at the first day of the two-day 36th Annual Research Seminar, organised by WII in Dehradun on Tuesday, where the Karnataka forest department is also participating.
In 2022-23, the National Board for Wildlife (NBWF) told the Railways to approach WII for an independent landscape and wildlife study. SWR has kept changing the alignment, and as per the new alignment, the broad-gauge line is proposed along National Highway-63, which is seeing a traffic surge. Earlier, SWR had proposed to acquire 1,000 hectares in the Kali Tiger Reserve, which later reduced to 595 hectares. According to SWR, the total project length is 164 km, of which 34 km stretch between Hubballi and Kalaghatagi has been completed.
The WII team studied forest divisions in Dharwad, Yellapur and Karwar along the proposed railway line from December 2024 to July 2025. Apart from collecting samples, they also used passive acoustic monitoring method for cryptic diversity.
“The proposed project will affect 556 hectares of forests, 57 Ha dry deciduous, 89 Ha evergreen, 322 Ha wet deciduous and 88Ha semi-evergreen forest land. The present study has recorded 201 plant species, including 43 Western Ghat endemic species, 29 fish species, 65 herpetofaunal species, 142 bird species and 33 mammal species. The documented species include 12 IUCN Red List species and 35 species listed under Schedule-1 of the Wildlife Protection Act,” the report read.
Abhijit Das, Scientist-E, WII and co-author of the study said this is a greenfield railway project and a thorough long-term evaluation is needed as against the earlier short-term studies. “So far we have accounted for 60 unique reptiles and amphibian species, which is 50% of Karnataka’s species. A thorough evaluation will be done covering two monsoon seasons and one dry season.
The report will be submitted to the MoEFCC and SWR in August 2026,” he said. The WII team insisted on a long-term study as the railway line passes through the fragile ecosystem. The line is proposed to pass through the buffer zone of Kali Tiger Reserve and will create a barrier between Bhadra and Kali tiger reserves.