‘Manmade’ forest fire near Ooty
‘Manmade’ forest fire near Ooty
15 February 2012
published by http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
India — A forest fire broke out in forest area near Doddabetta Peak, 6km from Ooty in the Nilgiris on Tuesday, damaging significant extent of forest land.
The wild fire which broke out around 2 pm near Doddabetta peak spread quickly to the neighbouring forest area and became uncontrollable, according to officials. “The forest area comes under the control of the Ooty municipality. However, our forest guards immediately attended to the disaster, and with the help of locals, they doused the fire within three hours,” said S Ramasubramanian, District Forest Officer (North Division). According to him the extent of damaged of forest area is around one acre. Forest officials suspect the fire was ‘man made’.
Meanwhile, a forest fire was reported deep inside the jungles of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR), on Monday. The fire damaged several acres of forest area adjoining Chikkhallah bordering the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka. The guards and watchers of MTR took several hours to bring the wild fire under control which spread to the MTR from the Karnataka border, said officials.
Normally, February and March are the months when the incidence of forest fires is high, due to the long dry spell.
