Bigcats News

[Pckts]

(02-25-2019, 06:08 PM)Rishi Wrote:

(02-25-2019, 05:25 PM)Pckts Wrote: I believe helicopters arrived yesterday, finally!

I hope this gets put under control soon but the damage could be done and the park ruined. 
@Rishi what is the general turn around for a park to get a meaningful number of animals back after a bad fire like this?

Normally the forest-floor catching fire during the dry season is a natural thing. It starts, spreads with the strong summer wind in a predictable direction & dies out or put out. The bigger trees & some tough shrubs survive, albeit charred, to grow leaves again while the undergrowth gets cleared to give way to the next generation of seasonal plants as monsoon arrives soon after.
For example; in Kaziranga the FD set the fire themselves every year so that instead of starting naturally, haphazardly it grows & spreads in a controlled manner. Sometimes artificial wildfires are created to get a region rid of invasive plant species (like lantanna in this case).

*This image is copyright of its original author

This case was an exception in the sense that it was one of the largest. The culprits lit several fires at multiple places & it grew out of control.

Due to this being February and the wind velocity low, this untimely fire moved quite slowly, doing more thorough damage to the region. But also loss of wildlife was fairly low because of that, according to FD almost negligible. However as rains are not coming for another 3-4 months, the forest are going to lie barren for a while.

The fire in Bandipur seems really bad, not like a controlled burn. It really looked like they were completely unprepared for this which is a shame. I heard their fire roads were/are non existent?
 I have a video of the helicopters dropping water but I wish they had a better aerial view to take in the damage.

Bhagya Lakshmi
Indian Air Force Helicopters have been sent to #Bandipura... 
#Save_Bandipura 
#Save_Forest

Reply