Jamshedpur : Forest department is geared up to douse fire at Dalma Hills following some forest fires in separate spots across the hills. Forest officials as well as the forest protection volunteers are into action for dousing the fire.
According to information the fire in Dalma wildlife sanctuary, is spread over eight hectres of forest cover.
When contacted, the Dalma range officer Mangal Kacchap said that the fire was suspected to have been triggered by the villagers who had been in the wildlife sanctuary for collecting fire-woods in the day.
The range officer informed that the fire was first sighted on Sunday. He said during the summer season the dry leaves act like gun-powder and soon after they spread like anything.
Senior forest department officials camping at Dalma since yesterday maintained that the fire broke out due to the negligence of villagers.
�Most devotees start trekking at night, a day before the festival begins, and use handmade torches (pieces of cloth wrapped on a stick and lit). It is possible that the fire originated from the torches,� a forest official said.
The inferno, he added, could have also originated from a bonfire made by the devotees. Revealing about the ways, the forest officials worked to put up the fire, the range officer said that the FPVs had used stone in dousing the flame. He pointed out the fire-fighting continued till early in the Monday morning and after an assessment, it was found that over eight hectres of forest cover was destroyed in the fire.
Kacchap, when asked, said that the elephants who live in the core areas of Dalma were not at all affected in last night’s fire, but he was not sure whether any other animal or bird was affected in the fire or not.
Notably, spread over 192 square kilometres, the Dalma wildlife sanctuary has over 130 resident elephants and other wild animals and reptiles as well as birds of hundreds of species.
�Forest fires are common during the summer. However, this fire started before we could demarcate the fire line,� he said. �Forest areas in Jharkhand are limited to the ground and are triggered by dry leaves.�
The department is also inquiring into allegations that an ousted president of the village forest committee had even tried to sabotage fire fighting measures.
