Richard Branson creates path for elephants - News Courtesy of bdafrica.com- 8/10/2009

Sir Richard Branson is giving a virgin gift for Kenyan jumbos — an Sh18 million underpass on the busy Meru-Nanyuki highway. Virgin Atlantic, his company, donated the money to put up the underpass through the Bill Woodley Mount Kenya Trust. Once complete, the six metre long underpass will be the first of its kind in East Africa, and the second in Africa. “The South Africans have one, but it is much smaller than the one we are putting up,” said The Bill Woodley Mount Kenya Trust CEO, Susie Weeks. The underpass is twice the size of the normal pedestrian highway underpass, and is designed to let through three elephants walking side by side. Once completed, the underpass will greatly reduce the expensive conflict between man and beast in the area. Elephant population in Mount Kenya is estimated to be 1,983 and the underpass is along the elephant corridor. Apparently, Kenyans copied the idea of a highway underpass for jumbos from down South Africa’s Kwazulu Natal province.

Ms Weeks says the Virgin Atlantic -sponsored project is the crucial part of a 14 kilometre long elephant corridor, expected to cost more than Sh70 million. The corridor, now being fenced with assistance from the Dutch government, is a kind of a superhighway for the jumbos, cutting across the busy Meru-Nanyuki Highway, to link Mount Kenya National Park and the Nagre Ndare Forest Reserve. And with the completion of the underpass, expected by Christmas Eve this year, the jumbos will not have to cause a traffic jam every time they decide to make the trip between these two habitats. “As soon as the underpass is complete, we have a viable elephant corridor,” said the Mount Kenya trust official.

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