Cruise vessel ‘Insignia’ calls at New Mangaluru Port

Jan 2: A year after 12,000 acres of forests in Bandipur went up in smoke, the Karnataka Forest Department is gearing up for the summer even as the Forest Survey of India (FSI) has cautioned that 22.78 lakh acres (9,222 sq km) or about 20% of the green cover spread across three districts in the central part of the state is fire-prone.

The FSI studied forest fire incidents across the country between 2004-05 and 2017 before coming up with state-specific inputs.

According to the 13-year observation, Karnataka has 7,352 “fire points” or areas measuring 5 km X 5 km with frequent fire incidents.

Though the number is lower compared to states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha with over 20,000 points, the sheer spread of the fire-prone area itself is a challenge for the Karnataka Forest Department.

According to data, about three lakh acres (1,199.9 sq km) of forest area is very highly fire prone with 26 to 52 fire incidents in 13 years. This is followed by 7.6 lakh acres (3,067 sq km) of “highly fire prone” areas with an average of one to two incidents every year.

Almost all of the “red alert” areas are concentrated in Uttara Kannada, Chikkmagaluru, Shivamogga and Chamarajanagar districts. As temperature rises at the end of January, so does the risk of forest fires, requiring officials to be on vigil till the end of summer.

After an investigation into the Bandipur blaze revealed that faulty fire lines and poor supervision were the reason for the spread of the fire, the department has come up with a multi-pronged approach to prevent similar incidents this year.

“After the Bandipur incident, we have created a fire cell and a standard operating procedure (SOP) which everyone has to follow. Firstly, a fire management plan is prepared and approved by a competent authority.

The SOP has well defined firelines which have to be executed by December-end and burning must be completed by January 15,”  Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Head of Forest Force) Punati Sridhar told DH.

He said that to ensure its strict implementation, GPS readings of firelines are to be submitted for random verification.

“All the required equipment from fire jackets to shoes, gloves, backpack sprayers and tractors mounted with 2,000-5,000 litre tanks with high pressure pumps will be deployed at vantage points,” he said.

In addition, the department’s fire cell works in collaboration with the Karnataka State Remote Sensing Applications Centre (KSRSAC) to give fire alerts within half and hour of an area catching fire and detected by satellites.

“Earlier, the gap used to be four hours by when the fire would have spread beyond control. Now, with reduced time gap, it would be easier to control fire early,” he added.

Udupi, Apr 29: Udupi Deputy Commissioner G Jagadeesha on Wednesday said that though the district was in the green zone in connection with COVID-19, there would not be any further relaxations and the lockdown would continue till May 3.

According to a statement, he said that no fresh Covid-19 cases have been reported for the past month. However, the district is not immune to the threat of the infection. Thus, the lockdown would continue till May 3 with minimum relaxation.

The district has already initiated relaxations and mandatory guidelines have to be implemented, he further said.

Mumbai, June 7: As the Maharashtra government has given green signal for outdoor physical activities under 'Mission Begin Again' despite amidst growing cases of covid-19,  thousands of Mumbaikars flocked to Marine Drive for 'morning walks' on Sunday.

People were seen wearing masks as a precaution from the novel coronavirus pandemic, however, from the viral photo, it seems that no social distancing norms were followed what so ever.

"Better call it marne waalon ka drive," said a Twitter user. "Still people have no sense of responsibility," said another Twitter user.

After nearly 80 days of lockdown, Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra revved back to life on Friday. 

Most markets, market areas, commercial and trading areas - barring malls or market complexes - reopened for business even as Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray reiterated that "people should tread cautiously while beginning a 'new life' from today".

Meanwhile, of the total 82,968 cases in Maharashtra, Mumbai now accounts for 47,354 cases and 1,577 deaths.

On Saturday, Maharashtra reported 120 deaths, including 58 in Mumbai, due to COVID-19, taking the overall number of fatalities to 2,969, state Health department said.

The recovery rate in the state stands at 45.06 per cent and the fatality rate at 3.57 per cent, an official statement said.