Hyderabad: Every day, on an average, Telangana's forests have actually been losing to fires every day the equivalent of 57.5 times the area of the popular KBR National forest in the city.
Or, in regards to another popular Hyderabad landmark, the state is day-to-day losing forests equal to 19.5 times the location of Hussainsagar lake to fires.This year, till April 4, Telangana lost a massive 20,471.54 hectares to forest fires.
Almost each of these fires, other than 600 out of the 21,439 fire signals gotten by the state through satellite images because January 1, have been triggered by people.
A couple of inadvertently, and the majority of, deliberately.The 600 exceptions include managed burns by forest department staff creating fire lines, and burning fallen leaves, dried yards to avoid any possible fire, unintentional or otherwise, from heading out of control.The present year, has actually been especially a bad one in terms of forest fires.
In 2018, during the 'forest fire season' that starts at the start of the year and ends in June, when the monsoon rains generally set in, Telangana reported 13,002 forest fire signals.
In 2019, this number was 13,911, and in 2020 it was 12,442 forest fire informs.
This year, with 3 more months to choose the fire season to end, there have already been 21,439 fire informs.
This leap in fire alerts is being credited to the lavish growth of grasses and shrubs in 2020, thanks to the copious rains the state received in 2015.
The then green sheets of undergrowth, are now bone dry, the ideal tinder for fires.Most fires are set by individuals.
This year, a great number of these fires are a result of individuals setting alight the undergrowth under Mahua trees.
Last year's rains led to a boom of sorts in blooming by Mahua trees this season, officials state.
The flowers of these trees are exceptionally popular among tribals living outside of forest locations along with the forest-dwelling tribal communities for brewing homemade liquor, a traditional activity enthusiastically pursued every summer.Mahua collectors triggered ground fires because it becomes easy to find the intense yellow flowers versus the black burnt ground.
Searching for the flowers in the middle of the in some cases waist-high turfs is a near-impossible job, especially with the wild lawns capable of inflicting painful nicks on the human body.
As soon as picked, the flowers are sun-dried before becoming the vital active ingredient for brewing liquor.
Though an effective fire alert system exists, with the signals being provided every day by the Forest Study of India which has two satellites watching on such fires across India, fighting them and putting them out is a tough job, according to numerous forest field personnel and fire watchers that Deccan Chronicle spoke with.
Often, when we get an alert, we reach that area using the GIS coordinates however find it has burnt itself out.
At other times, the fires are raging and it takes hours to beat one down.
The devices, consisting of fire beaters, is heavy and before we get to a fire, we frequently have to walk lots of kilometres in the hot sun or the dead of the night, one fire watcher in Nagarkurnool district said.
Because it is beside difficult to carry water to put out a fire in a forest, staff depend on fire beaters, or just branches with green leaves from the close-by trees, to beat the fire down.
It is extremely effort and Mahua collectors and others do not realise how hot it gets and how exhausting and unsafe the fires can be, another fire watcher said.In reality, simply how unsafe the forest fires can be, came to the fore unfortunately this past March when 3 of the 11 Chenchu tribals, caught in a ground fire when out digging for 'nannari' roots in the Amrabad tiger reserve, lost their lives to the severe burns they suffered.
Another big reason for fires are pilgrims making their way to temples through forests in the state, with the tiger reserve once again providing the perfect examples.
Every year, in the days adding to Maha Shivaratri celebration, the biggest tiger reserve in the nation sees hundreds of fires set by pilgrims walking through the forest as they make their way to the Shiva temple in Srisailam, throughout the Krishna river in Andhra Pradesh.
They listen to no one, set the fires to keep wild animals at bay as they stroll through the forest, a forest guard said.
Fire Alerts13,002 in 201813,911 in 201912,442 in 202021,439 in 2021 (till April 4)Fires in wildlife sanctuaries/tiger reserves4,161 in 20184,444 in 20194,267 in 20206,179 in 2021 (till date)Forest location burnt this year: 20,471.54 hectares