NILGIRIS: As part of monitoring and dousing of forest fires, officials in Masinagudi forest range in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) additionally set up a tree-top watchtower, locally known as ‘paran’.
A staff would be posted during the day time to monitor forest fires and inform other staff as part of preventing the spread of fire.
Masinagudi Forest Range Officer N Balaji said, “The staff who will be posted at the duty will notice the smoke across Masinagudi and nearby Singara, Theppakkadu and Kakkanalla forest ranges and inform us about it over phone. Subsequently, we will inform the nearby range officers about the forest fire in their ranges and we will also deploy the staff to douse off the fire in our own range.
“Paran which is readied using leftover bamboo will be helpful for us to monitor the movement of people who are venturing into the forest to collect firewood and curtail the illegal entry of tourists and poachers. During night hours, two staff each will be stationed at Karadi Betta and Vibuthi Malai where we have civil structures. These peak areas would also be monitored to prevent spreading of fires and prevent intrusion of outsiders,” he said.
Forest department usually sets up parans near waterholes where wild elephants frequent. “Like last year, we have set up a paran this year by the end of January and it has helped us more than last year even when we alerted about forest fires to the Bandipur Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Karnataka.
Luckily, there was no forest fire in Masinagudi range so far,” added Balaji.