Eco-activists demand closure of road in Golestan National Park

GORGAN,May 31(MNA) - A group of students, eco-lovers, and environmentalists assembled in Golestan National Park on Wednesday to request closure of a road passing through the park, the Mehr news agency reported. Golestan National Park is one of the largest, if not the largest and finest national park in Iran. It is situated in the jurisdiction of Golestan, Semnan and Khorassan provinces in Iran. With 900 square kilometers, the park embraces 1,350 different plants and 302 animal species including half of the mammals. Green-space activists, who want to raise awareness among the public regarding the park, asked authorities to divert the traffic away from the park by holding banners and carrying placards which some read: “We are asking the government to implement the bill to remove the road from the Golestan National Park”, “Leopards have the rights to live”, “We, the University of Tehran students, are asking for removal of ‘death road’ from the paradise of wildlife”, “If you cannot make utopia out of Iran, then don’t ruin National Golestan Park!” Only over the past three months, three Persian leopards have lost their lives by getting hit by passing cars on the very road in the park, not to mention that one of them was pregnant with a few cubs. In addition to the loss of wildlife, environmentalists argue that the concrete walls that have separated the road from the middle of the park could bring a complete separation of ecology between the northern parts of the park and the southern section. The story of taking the road off the park is not new at all; it goes back to the cabinet of Ahmadinejad’s government, although unfortunately so far no actions have been taken.