Early summer rain in parts of the State has reduced the incidents of forest fires that had seen a surge in the last few weeks.
Apart from the searing heat with temperature upward of 38 degrees Celsius in most places, the dry deciduous nature of most of the forests and the proliferation of weeds like Lantana camara in national parks and tiger reserves had contributed to spike in fire incidents.
There were 1,863 fire incidents — big and small — across the State from March 1 to 31 as per the Forest Survey of India (FSI), which generates fire alerts on near real-time basis. As per the satellite tracking information, March saw an average of 60 fires a day.
From April 1 to 5 with the temperatures hovering above 38 degrees C to 40 degrees C in most forest regions, the FSI alerts indicated 448 fires spread across Karnataka covering Belagavi, Shivamogga, Dharwad, Mangaluru, Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Ballari, and Mysuru circles, among others. This averaged out to nearly 90 fires per day during the first five days of the month.
Thanks to moderate to heavy rains, the number of fire spots dipped to 58 across the State between April 6 and 8, and not a single large fire was seen in Karnataka as on April 8.
Parts of south Karnataka region have continued to receive moderate to heavy rains. Hence most forests in the region, including Bandipur, Nagarahole, MM Hills Wildlife Sanctuary, and BRT Tiger Reserve, have seen a reprieve and relief from the scourge of forest fires.
Mahesh Kumar, Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF), Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, said the rains have been widespread and has covered the entire national park spread over 642 sq km.
At Bandipur, even the major fire prone areas with vast swathe of dry deciduous and scrub vegetation over run by Lantana, has received good rains during the week, said T. Balachandra, Director of Bandipur Tiger Reserve. Here last year more than 15,000 acres of forests were gutted.
At MM Hills Wildlife Sanctuary and BRT Tiger reserve, the scenario is similar with moderate to heavy rains but MM Hills Wildlife Sanctuary DCF V. Yadukondalu said they will lower their guard against fire only if there were a few more spells of rainfall.