BENGALURU: Forest fires are not new to the Jnanabharathi Campus of Bangalore University, which spreads across more than 1,200 acres of forest with a wide variety of flora and fauna, including peacocks, rabbits, foxes and several species of birds. The campus is considered one of the key green lung spaces of Bengaluru.
With thousands of trees shedding dry leaves and dry grass growing across the campus, fires often break out when passersby discard burning cigarette butts or when grazers entering the campus set fire to dry leaves and grass.
However, there is no standby fire engine on the campus, and the administration has failed to put in place concrete measures to tackle the recurring problem over the years.
Dr TJ Renuka Prasad, who was involved in mapping bioparks on the university campus and is a regular walker there, said, “To tackle this issue, our team had installed a few borewells, but they are not being utilised by the university administration now.
Earlier, we also conducted training sessions in coordination with the fire department to teach students how to douse forest fires. These trained students later acted as volunteers. However, those training sessions have now stopped.”
He added that there was once a fire station inside the campus, but it is no longer functioning. “The firefighters also do not have proper equipment to douse forest fires. Fire engines are large and cannot easily enter the narrow roads inside the forest areas of the campus,” he said.
He further said that the department does not have jeep-mounted or bike-mounted fire engines. “Security guards try to warn people against throwing cigarette butts and prevent grazers from entering the campus. In emergencies, the administration should store water in large drums to use for dousing fires. During the last fire incident, the administration and firefighters used water stored in such drums,” he said.
Prof C Somashekar, Acting Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University, said, “We were able to successfully douse the fire that broke out recently due to a discarded cigarette butt. Our security guards are vigilant, but the campus is vast and they cannot monitor every part of the forest. Since the fire station is located close to the campus, firefighters were able to reach quickly and put out the blaze.”