Mysore: The Karnataka Forest Department has written to the State Government to take disciplinary action against senior and junior Forest officials for the devastating forest fire that occurred in Bandipur National Park during February this year. 

The inferno had destroyed more than 3,000 hectares of fully grown forest in the ecologically sensitive Tiger Reserve that is home to tigers, leopards, civets, sambar deer and four-horned antelopes among other animals.

Following the fire, an Inquiry Committee was set up by the Department that has now been submitted to the State Government. Officials probing the inferno have found out that the annual action of preventing summer fire by preparing fire lines and view lines was not implemented properly and this is one of the main reasons for the fire to spread quickly.   

Further, the Inquiry Committee has recommended to the State Government that funds that were misused for fire line work should be recovered from officials responsible. The Committee has held Additional Principal Conservator of Forests (Project Tiger), the then Bandipur National Park Director, Assistant Conservator of Forest and some Range Forest Officers responsible for the fire and lack of preparations to face the inferno. The Inquiry Committee has cited two reasons for the massive fire — poor quality of fire line work and complete misuse of funds.

The Inquiry Committee report states that no fire lines were drawn in four wildlife ranges of the Tiger reserve. Even the fire lines that were drawn were of sub-standard quality and it was just 3-4 meters wide instead of 10 meters. In some places, the fire lines were less than 3 meters, the report stated.  The report said that there was no proper fire lines drawn during the fire season and whatever was drawn across Bandipur, they were neither effective nor of any use.

Along with the Inquiry Committee, another probe has been launched by the Vigilance Committee that is yet to submit its report. The Inquiry Committee has recommended the government to recover the fire line costs from the guilty officials.

The Committee observed that the officials had been better prepared, they could have doused the fire instead of letting it spread as much as it has. Fire lines should have been ready and Fire-Watchers hired on time for a season marked by warm and dry winds — conditions that are known to be essential factors in starting and fanning forest fires. Their inaction has now led to this large-scale ecological damage, the Committee observed. 

Joint effort to conserve wildlife at Bandipur

Meanwhile, an inter-State meeting of senior Forest personnel in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala at Bandipur recently decided to make concerted effort to conserve wildlife in the region.

The meeting, convened by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Regional Zone, Bengaluru, discussed various issues, including the invasion of invasive plants in the forest areas, steps being adopted by the authorities to vulture conservation, movement of radio-collared higher mammals such as tiger and elephants and various measures to be adopted to mitigate man-animal conflict in the region.

The meeting decided to intensify joint efforts to eradicate invasive plants such as Senna Spectabilis which caused major threat to the wildlife habitat in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. The meeting decided to ensure inter-State coordination in conserving the endangered vulture population in the region.