The rise in daytime temperature signalling the onset of summer has also increased the threat of forest fires forcing the authorities at Nagarahole to go on full alert.
Spread across Mysuru and Kodagu, the vegetation ranges from moist deciduous to dry deciduous besides grasslands and hence, a large portion of Nagarahole is prone to forest fires during summer.
Therefore, the park authorities have deployed additional 400 staff members who were roped in on an ad hoc basis from the local villages surrounding the tiger reserve. This is an annual exercise and the temporary watchers tend to be on the pay rolls of the forest department from around the second week of January to the onset of monsoon when the threat of forest fire diminishes.
‘’Apart from deploying additional 400 people, we are also harnessing unmanned aerial vehicle and a thermal drone is being deployed for early identification of any outbreak of fire,’’ said Mr. Harshavardhan, Director, Nagarahole Tiger Reserve.
The conventional measures including burning of fire lines to act as a firebreak have been completed through controlled burning of vegetation during the onset of winter. More than 2,500 km of fire line has been burnt and will act as a natural fire break in case of a conflagration.
The authorities have also identified more vulnerable and fire-prone ranges where extra vigilance is being maintained at Veeranahosahalli and Anechowkur. ‘’The fire extinguishers have been deployed at five locations and all the fire extinguishing equipment have been serviced, checked and are now deployed in different ranges,’’ said Mr. Harshakumar.
The forest staff have been instructed to provide regular reports pertaining to fire watch and the Park Director is being apprised of it on a daily basis. ‘’For emergency response, choppers will be used and the authorities concerned have been provided with exact locations of water bodies spread across the national park,” Mr. Harshakumar added.
The tiger reserve is spread over 847.98 sq.km of which 643.39 sq.km constitutes the core and 204.58 sq.km is the buffer and has a high density of tigers, elephants, leopards besides prey species such as spotted deer, barking deer, sambar, porcupine, wild boars etc.
Published - February 06, 2023 08:37 pm IST
