Srirangapatna: Hundreds of acres of forest vegetation was destroyed in fire allegedly lit by miscreants at Karighatta Hill in Srirangapatna taluk yesterday.

Karighatta Hill, also known as Chikka Tirupati, houses Sri Venkataramana Swamy Temple atop it, which has a history of thousands of years and miscreants have been torching the hill and destroying nature since many years.

Yesterday’s fire has destroyed more than 250 acre of forest vegetation. The flames spread uphill near the steps leading to Srinivasa Temple destroying precious plants and trees.

It was about a year or two, environmentalists, students, social workers and villagers had planted various types of saplings such as neem, peepal, banyan, mango, honge and jackfruit and had nurtured them every day by fetching water from the foothill and watering the saplings which had grown into small trees. Now, these trees have been destroyed in the fire which was lit by miscreants. Even small birds which had nested in these small trees are destroyed in the fire.

Negligence by Forest staff

Though the Forest staff noticed fire, no steps were taken even to inform the Fire Station, thus exhibiting their negligent attitude, which led to such devastation of forest vegetation.

Public alleged that those deployed to prevent forest fire were not working and added that the Forest Department had not taken any steps to prevent forest fire during summer and even firelines have not been created.

Action will be taken against negligent staff: DFO

Meanwhile, District Forest Officer (DFO) Ravishankar, speaking to SOM, said that miscreants have been lighting fire to forest every year and this year too they have lit fire.

“Due to excessive rains, bushes, grass and small plants had overgrown. Due to summer, grass and few plants had dried and this led to such devastation. The public have accused the forest staff of showing negligence, an enquiry will be held and action will be taken against the erring staff,” the DFO said.

Pointing out that a new Range Forest Officer (RFO) has been deployed, the DFO said that the RFO lacked information and added that there is shortage of staff and the present staff has                heavy work load.

Fire prevention limited to only programmes

As summer approaches, Forest Department authorities of the district hold various programmes to prevent forest fires by creating firelines, conduct regular beats to prevent unauthorised people from entering forest area and burn twigs and sticks in three metre radius from forest borders so that fire would not spread further into the forest area.

The Fire Department also plays a major role in extinguishing fire and the Forest staff have to be in constant touch with the Fire and Emergency Services Department.

In the past too, Karighatta has seen major fires caused by miscreants. Despite this, the Forest Department not taking any precautions to prevent such incidents had angered the public.