The Hindu : National : Kerala for joint action to control forest fires

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 12, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

National

National

Kerala for joint action to control forest fires

Roy Mathew

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Forest Minister Benoy Viswam said here on Monday that he would write to his counterparts in the southern States for joint monitoring and concerted action for prevention and control of forest fires.

The Minister’s move comes in the wake of widespread occurrence of fires on the Western Ghats, especially in the areas bordering Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. (In Kerala alone, nearly 100 forest fires were reported during the past three months. Some of these were in wildlife sanctuaries.)

Mr. Viswam told The Hindu that he would write to the Forest Ministers of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Pondicherry and Andhra Pradesh.

Fire maps from the satellite-based MODIS Rapid Response System of the United States showed that a number of fires occurred in the core areas of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala during the 24-hour period that ended on Sunday.

According to reports reaching here, several hundred acres of forests were damaged in fires at Moolahalla in the Biosphere Reserve. A few fires occurred in the buffer area of the Silent Valley and one was very close to the core area.

During the last two months, fires occurred in Tamil Nadu forests close to the Kerala border. One of those fires was just some kilometres away from the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary of Kerala. The Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary of Kerala and the Bandipur Wildlife Sanctuary of Karnataka were under threat from fires caused by people traversing the Kerala-Karnataka border. Degradation of forests affects the forests in the neighbouring State too.

The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve was constituted in 1986 under the UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Programme. “The Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary and the National Park, the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, the Bandipur National Park, the Nagarhole National Park, the Mukurthi National Park and the Silent Valley National Park fall within the Reserve. The Biosphere harbours 3.187 species of flowering plants. Of 185 taxa that are recorded as threatened species from Southern Western Ghats, 53 are found in the Nilgiris.”

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National