MF AHMAD
Daltonganj, Feb 8: The Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) is bracing up to reduce or contain episodes of forest fires as it has reactivated its eco-development committees, sensible villagers to keep a watch on any billowing out of the smoke along with a close watch on the water bodies.
The water level in the Chetma check dam is adequate right now but with the onset of summer, the receding of water in the check dams gets faster said, the deputy director of the South division.
Notably, PTR has two divisions – South and North which behave differently in fire season. North division gets dry faster and water is rushed to the troughs through water tankers for the wildlife from deer to elephants.
Kumar Ashish deputy director South division of the PTR said heat and summer take a longer time to hit it as the south division has more soil moisture than the North division.
The deficiency of rain has doubled the apprehension of an early start for the forest fire in the PTR. It is spread over a little over 1,100 sq km.
PTR, like all the other 50-plus tiger reserves in India, have broadly two seasons-the fire season and the monsoon season.
The fire season begins in PTR in March quite generally but in the wake of the scanty rainfall and long dry spell in the early beginning of the fire season in PTR can’t be ruled out, said Kumar Ashish.
Ashish said the forest survey of India Dehradun has discovered 96 episodes of fire in Jharkhand in January alone which was by all standards a cold month across the state.
There have been forest fire episodes in February too like in Ranchi, Simdega and Jamtara and hence there is every apprehension of forest fire erupting early in the PTR, warned the deputy director of the South division.
The forest survey of India, Dehradun through satellite sends fire alerts to the forest divisions all over the country. There are 36 forest divisions in Jharkhand.
As Palamu tiger reserve is a deciduous forest which means it has an enormous leaf fall and where leaf fall is huge, there is a strong vulnerability to surface fire.
Ashish said we have plenty of bamboo and leaf fall is enormous because of the bamboo and hence risk of surface fire is equally enormous.
Unlike other forest fires where jets of water are used to extinguish them, the forest fire in PTR is contained with no water at all but by cutting fire lines and with fire blowers.
