Just outside Jabalpur, where the forest thickens and the road begins to feel like an intrusion, National Highway 45 now looks different. A stretch of black tarmac suddenly gives way to bold red markings, laid flat but raised just enough to make drivers pause. It is here, cutting through one of Madhya Pradesh’s most sensitive wildlife corridors, that the National Highways Authority of India is testing a quiet but striking idea: can a road be redesigned to speak more clearly to the people speeding across it, and in doing so, save animal lives?
The nearly 12-km Hiran–Sindoor section of NH-45 runs along the edges of the Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary and the Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve. This is not empty forest. Tigers, deer, sambar and jackals move through these landscapes daily, crossing the highway in search of water, prey or territory. For years, despite warning signs and fencing, this stretch has remained prone to animal-vehicle collisions, especially after dark.
The new intervention is hard to miss. Instead of relying only on boards and barriers, the highway itself sends the message. Bright red, chequered, table-top markings stretch across the road, creating a slightly raised surface that nudges vehicles to slow down. There is no sudden bump, no sharp jolt. The change is visual first, tactile second. Drivers feel the road asking them to ease off the accelerator.
Officials say the colour choice was deliberate. Red stands out sharply against asphalt, far more than the familiar white or yellow lines that many motorists have learned to ignore. Combined with the uneven texture under the tyres, it signals that this is not a routine stretch of highway, but a zone where animals may appear without warning.
The markings are only one part of a larger effort to make NH-45 less hostile to wildlife. Along this route, NHAI has already built 25 wildlife underpasses, allowing animals to move beneath the road instead of across it. Tall iron fencing, about eight feet high, runs along both sides of the highway, funnelling animals towards these safer crossings. Yet accidents continued to occur in certain pockets, particularly during early mornings and late nights, when visibility is low and animal movement is high. The red table-top markings were introduced to plug that gap.
The Madhya Pradesh government recently showcased the project on social media, calling wildlife protection a “sacred duty”. The video, shared on X, lingered on the red bands cutting through the forested road, presenting them as India’s first such experiment designed specifically for wildlife safety.
The urgency is real. While India does not maintain comprehensive national data on animal-vehicle collisions, state-level figures offer a sobering glimpse. In Punjab, such collisions are believed to account for more than half of related accident deaths. In Madhya Pradesh, reports point to at least 237 animal-vehicle collisions and 94 deaths in the past two years. As tiger numbers rise in reserves like Veerangana Durgavati, animals are increasingly pushing beyond protected boundaries, often straight onto highways that slice through their traditional corridors.
NHAI officials see the markings as a simple but potentially powerful tool. Amritlal Sahu, an NHAI official associated with the project, says the idea is to make danger unmistakable. For the first time, he notes, red markings have been used to clearly flag risky stretches. The message to drivers is straightforward: slow down, because a wild animal could cross at any moment. Underpasses help, he adds, but they cannot eliminate risk unless motorists also change their behaviour.
The NH-45 upgrade, built at a cost of Rs 122 crore and scheduled for completion by 2025, is part of NHAI’s Green Highways initiative under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ 2015 policy on environmentally responsible road building. Beyond safety, officials say the improved highway will aid tourism and local economic activity in the region.
For now, the red markings stand as a rare moment where infrastructure pauses to acknowledge the life around it. If the experiment works, highways cutting through forests elsewhere in the country may soon borrow the idea. It would mark a subtle but meaningful shift: roads that no longer assume the right of way, but learn to share it.
