The last four months of the vigorous exercise to protect forests launched by the State government have practically ended timber smuggling, either by Multani offenders or others in erstwhile united Adilabad district in addition to decreasing the incidence of forest fires.
The threat to forests, nevertheless, continues as the number of fires is still much more than significant and felling of regenerating trees goes on unabated.
Satellite imagery
The forest fire alerts sounded by satellite imagery between February 1 and May 8 this year were less than the same for the corresponding period last year. Against the 1,768 alerts put out by the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership Satellite Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (SNPP-VIIRS) last year, 1,351 were raised during the corresponding period this year and against the 172 alerts recorded through the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-Radiometre (MODIS) last year, it was 78 this year.
The SNPP-VIIRS is capable of mapping small fires and accuracy of location when compared to the latter, according to the forest officials.
The fire locations were traced across all the ranges in former Adilabad district, the Kawal Tiger Reserve being no exception.
The use of wooden poles extracted from immature or regenerating trees, is equally vexatious.
An example is the nearly one-km long wooden pole fencing around an agriculture field erected a few days ago near the remote Khandala village in Adilabad rural mandal.
An estimated 500 pole length trees from the already depleted nearby forest were chopped for the purpose.
“We will book a case against the culprits,” asserted Adilabad Forest Divisional Officer V. Chandra Shekhara Rao when he came to know of the incident.
The solution, however, does not lie in booking cases in such crimes as the fear of antagonising farmers will see interference of political leaders, according to another senior Forest Department official in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district.
Maharashtra example
“If the government does not want to antagonise farmers, let it endear itself by bringing in some project which will ensure quality fencing around fields to save crops from devastation by wild boars,” the official observed as he delved into the issue.
He suggested the government do something on the lines of Dr. Syama Prasad Mukherjee Jan Van Vikas Yojana of Maharashtra government which has, among other things, a provision for subsidised funding of poor farmers in purchase of chain link fencing in areas where there is threat to crops from wild animals.