Insufficient Budget for Road Fence

A budget to fence part of the Shahroud-Mashhad Road passing through the habitats of the rare Asiatic cheetahs has been allocated by the government. “The budget is only sufficient to fence around 10 kilometers of the road that crosses Khar Turan National Park (also known as Turan Wildlife Refuge) in Semnan Province,” Hamid Zahrabi, the deputy head of the Department of Environment, was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency. The project is aimed at preventing road fatality among the highly vulnerable animal. The distance between Shahroud and Mashhad is approximately 500 kilometers, so the budget is woefully insufficient. The Asiatic cheetah that once roamed from Arabian Peninsula to India only survives in Iran today, but its population is shrinking and fewer than 50 have currently survived. Road accidents are among the main causes of cheetah’s mortality. With the arrival of the cold season, cheetah’s roaming is expected to increase and they are more likely to approach the roads, making the erection of fences all the more urgent.