Even as forest cover in the State is on the wane with several factors at play, fire every year gulps huge patches of precious plants and kills lots of animals and birds. Though the mishap occurs during hot summer across the State, the Forest Department fails to take appropriate step to tackle the menace betraying its helplessness. Needless to say, the Similipal forest inferno should serve as a wake-up call.
The Similipal wildlife sanctuary is one of the important biosphere reserves of the State. It spreads over 5,569 sq km of area with about 2,750 sq km in it declared as a tiger sanctuary. Besides the tigers, a large of animals, birds, amphibians and reptiles are living in the forest which is also very rich in plant species and orchids. Yet, due to lack of vigilantism and preparedness, the Similipal forest administration failed to control the fire which was one of the biggest in the recent history. The fire affected about 50 hectares of the forest.
More often than not, forest fire is a human error. The locals inside the forest or in its vicinity set ablaze the dry leafs and foliages for a host of reasons. Basically, they do it for collecting minor forest produce, especially mohua flower which is harvested during the summer season. People also set forest on fire for killing animals and birds. Nevertheless, for fun’s sake and fear of wild animals especially the straying ones like the elephant, the inhabitants burn forests caring little about the precious flora and fauna.
There are five village clusters in the core area of Similipal, while in the buffer zone there are dozens of villages. The villagers count much in the safety and preservation plan of Similipal. However, thanks to failure of the authorities to take the villagers into confidence or create sufficient awareness drive against setting fire to the forests irresponsibly and indiscriminately, the forests are not saved from mishaps. Similar is also the reason behind the fire incidents in many other jungles across the State. lack of manpower, improper surveillance and inability to win over the people living in the forests only leads to forest burning, causing colossal losses to the plant and wildlife species.
Environmentalists have raised serious concerns over the recurring menace and loss of forest resources in the State every year. Biswajit Mohanty attributed the regular forest fire to lack of proper and adequate action plan to tackle it on part of the Forest Department. He said the Forest Department needs to remain alert during summer to control forest fire on the basis of information derived from satellite images. If the Forest Department takes early action immediately after fire takes place, it can control it but once the fire spreads to bigger areas and takes a huge proportion, it becomes very difficult to control it, he asserted.