With the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) approving the Thane-Borivli underground twin tunnel project by the MMRDA, which will pass below the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) will study the project’s impact on ground-dwelling animals. To do this, WII plans to collar a total of 30 wild animals, including leopards, spotted deer, and sambar deer. The collaring process for five leopards, five spotted deer, and five sambar deer is scheduled to take place after the monsoon. This will be the first time spotted deer and sambar will be radio-collared in SGNP.

When the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change approved the twin tunnel, the government instructed that WII should do a study of the pre and post impact of the project work if any on the wildlife inside SGNP. Senior scientist Dr Bilal Habib from WII said, “The twin tunnels between Borivli and Thane are going to pass below SGNP and we are going to study if the pre (during construction) and post (after construction) ground vibrations will have any impact on ground-dwelling wild animals.