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.
Mahesh S Patil, the judge of second additional civil court and JMFC, Managluru, ruled that Mr Uchil should be given a compensation of Rs 50,000 along with interest at the rate of 9% per annum from the date of suit till the actual payment towards damages.
Comments
Dear Abdulraheem Uchil,
Hope these messages, will contribute you a major change in your life as a TRUE MUSLIM.
At least now you have to change yourself for sake of your own.
All community people will love you, if you truly learn and change.
Allau is Gafoor Al Raheem. He accepts sincere apologies and Tauba
I really respect for the word what he said is
About the interest being Muslim !!!
Dear brother,
You should now think how many people in your own community disagree with your principles.
Just for materialistic benefits you are compromising with teachings of Great religion where you borned with.
This world is not permanent. You and we are here to prepare in this life for the next permanent life.
Here we are supposed to face all type of difficulties to enables to lead the next life comfortably.
Join other your fellow community members. Live with them.
don't earn their enmity.
May Allah forgive us and you.
Dear brother,
You should now think how many people in your own community disagree with your principles.
Just for materialistic benefits you are compromising with teachings of Great religion where you borned with.
This world is not permanent. You and we are here to prepare in this life for the next permanent life.
Here we are supposed to face all type of difficulties to enables to lead the next life comfortably.
Join other your fellow community members. Live with them.
don't earn their enmity.
May Allah forgive us and you.
Dear Mr Rahim,
Congrats on winning the law suit.
In my opinion, you dont have to listen to the negative comments, especially to that of you receive from bearies. It doesn't matter which political party you belong to, as long as you do good service to the society.
They advise you on how to be 'true muslim'. 'True muslim' tag is not 'universal'. Till today nobody can unambiguously/univocally/indisputably define 'true muslim/islam'. We have 100s of parties in Islam. Each party considers themselves as 'true muslims'. This confusion will never ever be cleared until end of this world. Even terrorist claim they are 'true muslims'.
So, please continue your good works sir. By good works I mean moral/ethical and socially beneficial works, which are independent of any religion. Good is good. Bad is bad. No need any religious tags/support for it.
Thanks for valuable suggestions,(positive and negative comments )
What a joke Rahim!!! From which jungle these so called politician are coming from... Redicolous
Only in front of Media he is telling that he is not accepting interest. The real matter is entirely different. If he is a true Muslim he never join facist party like BJP. If he take interest or leave interest what is the difference....??? for him.
Dear Raheem Bhai,
If you are a true muslim then you should not accept even 50,000/ rupees . Because it is not that your hard earned money. Being a true muslim atleast you should donate this money to some charitable organization such as Old home , disabled children center or orphanage , then only you can say you are a true muslim.
Ra(hi)m Uchila, you cannot be a true muslim by not accepting interest, you have to learn and practice Islam to be come Muslim.
example for the man kind, best of rahim uchila \Being a ‘true Muslim’ I cannot accept interest,” he said."
By the way, what was the actual allegation? Can you please publish that defamatory article here ? :p
Rahim uchil shirt color and pose super
Just avoiding interest will not make a person true Muslim. A Muslim has to set example by practicing all teachings of Islam in life, so that even Non-Muslim be attracted.
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