A herd of elephants cooling off in a waterhole in Bandipur, in south Karnataka.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Last week’s rains in and round Mysuru-Chamarajanagar belt has given a breather to the Forest Department as the rise in moisture content material will delay the onset of fireside season a while in February 2024.
Bandipur obtained average to heavy rains for 3 days on account of which the waterholes have stuffed up, and can present reprieve for animals for an extended period. There had been issues that extreme drought-like circumstances within the forest would create a disaster for wildlife because of failure of southwest monsoon. Though final week’s rains can’t completely offset the paucity of the monsoon, it’s a welcome reduction, in response to officers.
Ramesh Kumar, Director, Bandipur Tiger Reserve mentioned the bottom state of affairs definitely brightened as much as an extent as clearing vegetation via managed burning might be delay by a number of extra days. Removal of weeds and vegetation alongside demarcated strains, via managed burning through the onset of winter, is a part of fire-control technique adopted by the Forest Department throughout India.
“This vegetation-free area prevents fire from spreading from one part of the forest to another in case of a conflagration during summer. The controlled burning to clear vegetation normally commences in November or early December, but this year it can be put off by a few days,” Mr. Ramesh Kumar defined.
While the reprieve is marginal, it’s nonetheless welcome as it can assist cut back the variety of days throughout which the forest turns into prone to fireplace.
While the cumulative rainfall in south inside Karnataka throughout this yr’s southwest monsoon from June via October was 26% under regular, there was extra rain between November 1 and 13.
Chamarajanagar obtained 74 mm of rains through the interval, which is 66% above regular, Mysuru has obtained 103 mm of rain, which is 201% above regular, and Bandipur is unfold throughout these two districts.
Every spell of unseasonal rain in Bandipur brings cheer to the authorities, because the nationwide park is vulnerable to forest fires throughout summer time. It has a historical past of main fires which have swept via huge swathe of forests. The final such fireplace was in February 2019 when practically 15,000 acres of forest was affected because of dense undergrowth of vegetation and dry weeds, like lantana, that are extremely inflammable.
Forest Department workers are additionally depending on the cooperation of the area people to battle forest fires and anticipate their rural outreach programmes, like Bandipur Yuva Mitra, to pay dividends in the long term.
Bandipur Yuva Mitra is a nature training programme with the target of sensitising faculty and school college students, in addition to academics, dwelling in villages bordering the nationwide park on environmental points, together with the imperatives of stopping forest fires. It has lined over 5,000 college students up to now. Participants are additionally skilled as eco-volunteers to deal with disaster state of affairs, which is anticipated to turn out to be useful through the fireplace season.
Source: www.thehindu.com
