Erode: Fire broke out in Palamalai forest in the district on Monday night, destroying trees on around 30 acres. Forest department officials managed to put out the fire, which broke out at 9pm on Monday, by 4am on Tuesday.
Situated near Nerinjipettai in the district, Palamalai forest is home to a myriad of trees, including teak, and animals such as deer and sloth bear.
A forest officer said, “Local villagers alerted us about the fire around 10pm. We rushed to the spot immediately along with the fire and rescue services personnel.”
The team, however, couldn’t take fire tenders to the forest, because of lack of proper roads in the jungle. “We cleared dried leaves and trees in the immediate vicinity and thus managed to reduce the damage to the forest by curbing the fire from spreading,” the officer said.
Forest officials have registered a case and initiated an inquiry to ascertain if the fire was man-made or not. “The villagers usually set dried trees on fire for coal. We are probing this angle,” the officertold TOI.