Chamarajnagar: After a battle of four days, the staff of the Bandipur National Park finally contained the fire that had swept through its ranges, Tuesday evening at the Gopalaswamy Betta range.
The Indian Air Force’s Bambi Bucket choppers, which joined the operation Monday afternoon, resumed dousing the forest fire that had spread to parts of Mudumalai and Wyanad sanctuaries adjoining Bandipur. Starting at around 7.30 am Tuesday, the two choppers flew over the spots identified by park officials and doused the fire with water from the sky for about two hours, making sure there was no more threat to the forests in the area.
Both Assistant Conservator of Forests, Ravikumar and GS Betta RFO, Puttaswamy, later confirmed that the forest fire was contained Tuesday evening. Mr Puttaswamy explained that lantana, an invasive weed found in vast sections of the park, had fuelled the fire, making it difficult to contain the blaze.
“Although controlling the fire was tough, not many trees have been destroyed in it. While some small trees have suffered, large, old trees have managed to survive the blaze,” he said.
The officers added that they had not come across any charred carcasses of wild animals in the forests from where the fire was reported, raising the hope that all the animals have survived the blaze that refused to die out for days despite the best efforts of the forest department to douse it.
Bandipur officials believe the next two months will be crucial for the revival of the areas devastated by the fire and say they will have to constantly monitor the region to keep it safe. “Once it rains, Bandipur will spring back to life , “ Mr Puttaswamy assured.
