HYDERABAD: The forest department hopes to understand what caused the flattening of trees in around 280 hectares in the Eturunagaram forests in Mulugu district on August 31 following heavy rain. The department has scheduled a day-long workshop on September 24 at its Aranya Bhavan headquarters here to discuss the possible reasons and arrive at a conclusion based on scientific evidence on how tens of thousands of trees were felled in a single evening.
For now, department officials believe that a phenomenon called ‘straight-line winds’ – sudden strong gusts of high-speed winds travelling in one direction over short distances — flattened trees in two patches of the forest, one approximately 200 hectares, and another nearby patch of around 80 hectares. While initial rough estimates put the number of trees fallen between 80,000 and one lakh, a physical enumeration is currently on and is expected to be completed in a couple of days.
Though the officials in Mulugu district contacted the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) soon after the discovery of the fallen trees to find out how the event came about, the IMD is learnt to have informed that it was not in a position to say anything concrete as it does not have any weather monitoring facilities in the area.
The department also contacted the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) in Hyderabad with the same request, and it is learnt that NRSC scientists are examining satellite data and their findings could be presented at the workshop.
