Fire destroys 150ha Gorewada forest land

Nagpur: A massive fire engulfed a section of the Balasaheb Thackeray Gorewada International Zoological Park on Sunday and ended up destroying flora and fauna spread over approximately 150 hectares. Fortunately, no animal or tourists in the vicinity were affected as the flames were brought under control by forest officials, and fire and emergency services department of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC).
According to S Bhagwat, divisional manager, Gorewada zoo project, the fire started around 12.30pm in the direction of Lava-Dabha village. “Since strong winds were blowing around the same time, the fire spread quickly in the jungle and raged on for five hours,” the official said.
As the winds picked up, the fire menacingly started spreading towards the zoo around 2pm. Being a Sunday, tourists had lined up for the much-in-demand safari trips. This had the potential to fast turn into a major disaster, but fortunately the forest department had got all hands on deck.
Bhagwat and his team immediately stopped all the safari trips and evacuated tourists who were present at the main gate as well. All scheduled safaris too were cancelled and the area was closed for outsiders.
Over 150 staff from the forest department, along with their own fire services unit and the one from NMC swung into action and a massive exercise was undertaken to isolate the fire from the rest of the populated zone.
While the tourists were gone, forest officials did not lose sight of the fact that animals were still in enclosures. Bhagwat said, “We were able to bring the fire under control after a lot of efforts. No living being was harmed. The fire was subdued much before it could come in the vicinity of the zoo.”
As of now the forest department is involved in measuring the damaged area, but rough estimates put that figure between 100 to 150 hectares. The reason for the fire was not ascertained till the filing of this report.
A forest department employee who was present at the site told TOI that it was the biggest fire in that area. “It picked up very fast,” the employee said on condition of anonymity.
“At one point we did fear that it would head towards the zoo where tourists were also present. But credit goes to our department and all fire personnel who systematically brought the fire under control,” said the employee.