Major fire reduces grass, trees to ashes in 125 ha in Ambazari forest
| Date :27-May-2019 |
Special Correspondent:
A major fire broke out in Ambazari forest, a part of urban forest falling in Hingna Forest Range, on the intervening night of Saturday-Sunday, reducing grass and trees to ashes in 125.40 hectares. A forest guard on night duty noticed the raging fire from Wadi-Kamala Nagar side at 1.40 am and he immediately alerted A S Ninawe, Range Forest Officer, Hingna, about the incident. Looking at the magnitude of the fire, he also contacted phone no: 100 to give message to the Police Control Room.
Upon getting information, Siddharth Shinde, Assistant Commissioner of Police, R D Nikam, Police Inspector, Crime Branch, Nagpur, N A Madankar, Police Sub-Inspector, MIDC Police Station, RFO Ninawe, Vijay Gangawane, RFO, Seminary Hills, rushed to the spot along with staff. Nikam thought it better to call fire brigade. Soon, D N Nakod, Station Officer, Narendra Nagar Fire Station, reached with six fire tenders at 2.10 am, it is reported. The officers, 15 policemen, 20 forestmen, six plantation labours under Metro and others started to extinguish the huge fire with the help of air blowers and fire tenders. Their efforts brought the fire under control at six am.
However, the grass and trees in 125.40 hectares of forest land were gutted in the fire completely. Forest Department constructed compound wall around the said area that checked illegal grazing and encroachment. The grass was grown up to five feet. Due to dry grass and leaves on the ground the fire spread rapidly in the large area.
The compound wall resulted in stopping anti-social activities and hence some disgruntled souls must have kindled the fire, forest officials suspect. An eye-witness, Eshsan Gharpure, a resident in the nearby area, also saw the fire raging from terrace in the midnight. The flames went as high as a four-storey building. The people could see the blaze from a distance of five to six km.
The cause of the fire is still a mystery as this area is restricted to people and also no one would dare to go so deep in forest in the midnight, Gharpure viewed. Meanwhile, Umesh Kumar Agrawal, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Head of Forest Force), B S Huda, Addl PCCF (Protection), P Kalyankumar, Chief Conservator of Forest, and Prabhu Nath Shukla, Deputy Conservator of Forest, took cognisance of the incident. They visited the spot in the morning and instructed the staff to register FIR, conduct enquiry and take measures for protection immediately. N D Tawle, forest guard, Ambazari, has registered an offence in the matter. Forestmen are investigating further to search the culprit/s to take suitable action. In the meantime, Gorewada jungle is also prone to man-made fires. The department has constructed compound wall around the area that totally checked illegal activities of the people living around. About a half dozen cases of fires occurred there in the past couple of months.