Mysuru: The Technical Committee constituted by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) to probe the recent fire that was reported on a private land at Shyadanahalli in Belavatha — after 14-year-old Harshal died of burns and one more boy Manoj suffered serious injuries ­— has submitted its interim report to Deputy Commissioner D. Randeep.

The Committee has concluded that there were no chemicals found at the spot to cause fire.

The 10-member Committee chaired by B.S. Jai Prakash, Vice-President, Academy of Certified Hazardous Material Manager, India Chapter, Bangalore Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, opined that it was a man-made bush fire that occurred before Harshal and the other boy stepped into the area.

“The Committee did not find any chemical odour in and around the incident spot and there was no fire eruption. On witnessing the scene of the spot and the kind of fire damage, the Committee feels that it is man-made bush fire perhaps which has occurred prior to the incident,” the Committee stated.

“The Committee further visited the surrounding area of the site to ascertain any such similar activities nearby and found coconut shells are being converted into charcoal in a crude method. The Committee could notice carbon content materials which are spread sporadically,” the interim report noted.

It may be recalled here that Star of Mysore had on April 20 published a report, based on the analysis done by Mysuru-based chemical engineer S. Rajashekar, that said that the accumulated biomass under the sand had caused the fire.

He said that large-scale burning of coconut shells to convert them into coal briquettes at Shyadanahalli might have contributed to the fire.

Rajashekar, an environmental engineer who has done his M.Tech in Chemical Engineering from Bengaluru, had stated in his report to the Deputy Commissioner D. Randeep, that biomass dumps from nearby units that convert coconut shell into charcoal could have caused the accident and there were a couple of such coconut shell burning units near the site where the teenage boy Harshal suffered chemical burns.  

“Once the charcoal is generated, powder waste is dumped in the area that leads to the accumulation of bio-char. The dumping process is going on here since months,” he had stated.

Reports sought

Meanwhile, the KSPCB Technical Committee has sought the post-mortem report of Harshal and the statements of the land owner for further investigation.

The Committee also sought the Police investigation report to proceed further in their probe into the mystery fire.