Forest dept faces heat as week-long fire-fighting, use of copter go awry

CHENNAI: The week-long fire in Coimbatore forest reserve is turning out to be a heated debate among the foresters and wildlife conservationists, with the latter slamming the department for not taking preventive measures, but later going full throttle, even engaging a chopper for the first time in Tamil Nadu to douse it.

The forest department pressed a helicopter to douse the fire but without the jungle knowledge and lack of tribal participation with insiders blaming the spectacle event as a money-spending exercise.

“Poor planning and administration lapse helped the fire to spread to other areas. Forest fire is nothing new to the Western Ghats, but prevention should be the best option. Further, the satellite image inputs obtained from the forest department often lack last mile connectivity without reaching the guard or forester,” said department insiders.

Failure to regulate tourists, promotion of eco-tourism during the scorching summer, coupled with non-engaging of local tribals to monitor fire are some of the issues the local foresters failed, said K Mohanraj, a Kovai-based wildlife activist.

“Further vested interests and non-tribals also light up the forest to ensure that the fresh grass grows up after the summer so that the cattle can graze. Besides, there is also intelligence that those felling costly timbers like sandalwood and teak can also set fire to shield their crime.

“These are some of the areas foresters should work on.They’re working after the fire is spread, but the big question is what is done to prevent fire and engage tribals in fire fighting,” Mohanraj added.

“Local temple festivals are also a reason for forest fire, bursting of crackers and using firewood at times can lead to forest fire and these are areas that can be monitored only through the participation of local tribes,” said a wildlife conservationist wishing not to be named.

“There has to be a corpus fund from gram sabhas funding tribes to prevent forest fires. The tribes and anti-poaching watchers are crucial in a forest fire, not the fire service or district administrators who lack knowledge on wind movement, terrain topography, and availability of water in nearby streams.

“Further, the tribes are good with setting opposite fires and creating a forest line of control at the preliminary level. They should be funded at least during summer or they should be designated as the first responders to fire and not roped in later with the uniformed staff. There are about 150 forest tribal settlements in Coimbatore, Erode and Sathyamnagalam are we using them effectively for forest–fire ecology,” wondered, the ecologist.

However, officials dismissed the allegations and theories of activists. “It has been one of the most challenging operations as a large team of around 200 forest personnel was deployed on a rotational basis. In addition, 100 personnel were kept on standby.

“Almost 80 per cent of the operation was carried out through conventional methods and the IAF helicopter was engaged only for a day to complement our efforts,” said an official stating not to undermine the sleepless efforts of the foresters.

“Conventional techniques like creating fire lines, removal of dry leaves and counter fires on the hills were tried. We adopted different area-specific fire control techniques based on the requirement. Moderate fires have broken out before in the hills in 2016 and 2019, but the fire outbreak this time was massive due to the bamboo bloom. Some of the trees were 60 to 70-year-olds spreading the fire, left right and centre due to the huge deposits of biomass in the hills,” the official said.

There is no human habitation in the hills and therefore an investigation is underway by the forest department to establish whether the fire is man-made or natural. “The dry grass was rolling down like fireballs, preventing our personnel from going up to control the fire in the steep rocky terrain. While dried bamboo flowers intensified the fire, heavy winds also led to a quick spread out. Though the grass vegetation is lost, the fire has not entered the green trees, the official said commending the local DFO and district collector for arresting a major fire.

The official further said the IAF has so far not raised any bills for deploying the chopper and an experienced forest team, advisors from the Forest Survey of India, local villagers and tribals all together fought the fire throughout this week.

Local panchayat president and other local leaders were on the spot from day one and tribal people from four tribal villages to an estimated 130 numbers were roped for fighting the fire, forest department sources said.