Ooty: Fire damages 12 acres of Mudumalai tiger land

OOTY: In the first major jungle distress this season, a forest fire broke out at Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) on Friday evening as the foresters sweated it out to control it. 

The drying weather and frost-bite have turned the jungle flora brittle and dry in the MTR woods and made them susceptible to wild fire.  Though the foresters at MTR have been keeping a vigil and made precautionary arrangements to prevent forest fire, it has gone in vain as the fire broke out the jungles near Kakkanallah area in the MTR border on Friday evening. The foresters and the forest disaster management teams have rushed to the spot to douse the fire and to bring it under control.  As the challenging terrain and fast spreading fire posed stiff challenge to the foresters, they fought a brave battle to extinguish the fire.

They battled for nearly an hour inside the woods, to bring the fire under control.  However, the ravaging forest fire has damaged about 12 acres of jungle cover in the tiger land, sources said. 

V.A.Saravanan, the deputy director of MTR said, jungle patrolling will be further strengthened in the odd hours now to keep any elements which try to play with the jungle ecology.  The tourists and other passengers who are crossing the road along MTR should keep away from smoking to prevent the chances of forest fire that may erupt from throwing away of cigarette butts in the wooded zone, he added.