BENGALURU: The satellite-based technology, which has been put in place to send alerts in case of forest fires, has been misreading even controlled fires ignited by the Karnataka Forest Department to create fire lines, and has been sending repeated alerts. With the dry February approaching, the department is now praying for rain for relief.
Over the last two weeks, forest officials have been on their toes for two prime reasons -- one to ensure that the creation of fire lines in forest patches does not lead to any untoward incidents and the other is to send reports to Nasa and Karnataka State Remote Sensing Applications Centre (KSRAC) that there are no forest fires.
Satellites mark even a small fire as a red dot and send out an alert. If the alert is not addressed and the report not closed, the level of alert intensifies. Early last week at the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, alerts were sent for three consecutive days. But it was the forest department that was creating fire lines.
Every year, between December and January, the forest department takes up the work of fire lines, which are parallel or horizontal patches in forests, especially in dry deciduous areas. These patches are burnt to create gaps to prevent anthropogenic fires from spreading. In the two prime tiger reserves of Bandipur and Nagarhole, the department has taken up the task in a 2,500 km stretch each.
Last year, 2,984 forest fires were reported, but officials said nearly 90 per cent of them were controlled burning. “While technology is required to give instant alerts, it is misleading and creates panic. Some experts who get the alerts too call us asking for details. The technology has helped us keep track of small forest fires that occur even in 1-2 acres.
It has prevented major fires like the ones that occurred in Bandipur in 2017 and 2019, where 3160 hectare and 4570 hectare of forest was burnt down. In 2020 and 2021, Covid ensured zero movement of people in forests, so there were no incidents of arson. In 2022, only minor ones were reported. Also, the numbers were less as the state received unprecedented rain. We are praying for rain in January-end and February to prevent forest fire,” said a senior forest official.