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.
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Jaago Mangaloreans Jaago!
Govt should do something to stop this kind of daylight robbery from airports. and should stop toll booth also
This is not fare.. If they are taking charge for parking, they should ensure the safety of the vechles also
In airports evrything is costly. As per Indian rule, MRP will be the last higher price and more than that should not be charged. But for 35 rs soft drink they are charging 45 to 50. for 15 rupees biscuit they are charging 30 rupees.
This people are making lakhs of income in month by coming from outside and we idiots are fighting each other about religion
Why this parking has been given to the north indians as in contract, why cant we locals take this parking and run this.. what do say guys? and this people are so arrogent they think that we are outsiders and they are locals
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