More Fallen Trees Found in Eturnagaram Forest, Wind Damage Suspected

“The pattern of the tree fall is identical to that found in the first instance. This new patch, very close to the first one, was discovered two days ago. In fact, the two areas in the forest where the tree fall occurred are almost contiguous,” Mulugu district forest officer Rahul Jadhav said on Monday.

For now, officials from the forest department believe that the devastation that destroyed around one lakh trees in the sanctuary in a straight line in an area lying between the village of Darla Kottur and Kondaparthi in the forest is a result of strong straight line winds — a phenomenon involving very strong winds that develop quickly due to a downdraft of thunderstorms and can reach speeds of up to 100 km an hour or more and move in a straight line.

“It is quite possible that because of the tree density in those patches, they may have been warmer than their immediate surroundings resulting in the sudden downdraft and the winds. The indications are that the wind blew from a northeastern to southwestern direction as seen from the way the trees have fallen,” the official said.

The trees acted like windbreakers and suffered as a consequence. If the trees were not there, the winds would have possibly gone on to hit Kondparthi village with around 600 population.

“We asked the IMD about the phenomenon and it responded that it cannot say much as it does not have any weather observation facilities there. We are waiting for data and imagery from the National Remote Sensing Centre which might help us understand what exactly happened. We are also looking at the contours of the land to try and figure out if the lay of the land contributed to what happened in terms of the winds developing,” Jadhav said.

The larger and older trees with trunks of wider girth fell, were broken and splintered while the younger trees, with possibly more supple trunks, survived but had their canopies blown away. The department has pressed some 150 of its staff and officials to inspect the forest area if similar devastation occurred in any other parts of the sanctuary.

“The second patch of destroyed forest was found during such perambulation as we are only now able to walk through the forest with rivulets and streams subsiding. We are also counting the number of trees that have fallen, that are still standing,” the official said.

Though such incidents have not been reported in Indian forests, officials said a similar event had occurred once in the Nauradehi wildlife sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh some years ago. “There it was mostly teak trees which have shallow roots but in Eturunagaram this is a mixed forest and irrespective of which species of tree it was, almost all of them were broken with only the young ones still standing but with their canopies blown away,” Jadhav said.