Villagers burning dry grass cause for Nandi Hills fire

BENGALURU: The state budget had announced that action has been initiated to develop 20 heritage tourism destinations, and one of those was Nandi Hills. However, threatening this boost for the popular hill station is an old practice which is undoing the progress and harming the biodiversity of the hills — the villagers’ custom of burning old grass to grow new grass which would sustain their cattle.

On Thursday, a massive fire spread from the base of the hills near the village of Angatta, and the serpentine blaze snaked upwards almost to the top of the hills.“The fire was only at the ground level, so only the grass was burnt and not the trees. Once we got information about it, we rushed to the spot and tried to douse it. But, the strong winds caused it to spread along valleys and hence it took us a long time to put out the fire completely,” said Manjunath D, Deputy Conservator of Forests for Chikkaballapur range.
The fire started around 12.30 pm, following which, about 15 forest officials rushed to the spot and tried to extinguish it. “A lot of dry hay was burnt, which helped the fire,” said Range Forest Officer (Chikkaballapur) Vikram Reddy. The officials stayed in the area until 2.30 am on Friday morning to douse the fire which affected about 10-15 acres, as per Reddy.

Officials have confirmed that the fire was not natural, and they suspect that farmers from Angatta would have started it to burn dry grass in order to let fresh, greener grass grow in its place, which would serve as fodder for their cattle to graze.Reddy said, “Farmers do this every year. We are keeping a strict watch, but were not able to catch anyone red-handed.”

Investigations to find the culprits is in process. Reddy said a cash prize would be announced for anyone who provides information on the identity of the persons who started the fire. Officials had also suspected the same reason to be the cause of repeated fires at Bellandur Lake, as local residents would graze their cattle on the lands beside the lake.

Balkrishne Gowda, Professor at the University of Agricultural Sciences, said, “If grass that is two-three years old is burnt, it does help, but the fire will kill other shrubs in the forest,” he said.The forest in and around the hills are ecologically important, as they are home to many species of flora and birds. In addition, the state government has plans to start a cable car project which would connect the foothills to the hilltop.