Padayatra held to protect G’mardan from forest fire
Saturday,
09 March 2013 17:10
PNS
| BALANGIR
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With a view to sensitising people about the danger
from forest fire and checking pollution from polythene, besides
protection of forest in the Gandhamardan region, a two-day Padayatra
was undertaken by the Gandhamardan Suraksha Action Committee (GSAC) in eight
villages of Nandupala gram panchayat located in the Gandhamardan foothills near
Harishankar, 80 km from here.
“We took out the Padayatra on March 6 and 7 in
the villages of Nandupala gram panchayat in Khaprakhol block to sensitise
villagers about the threat to the
Gandhamardan forest from fire and pollution from polythene.
Our aim is to make the villagers aware about the need
for forest protection,” said GSAC president Tikendra Jaal.
With the beginning of the Mahua flower season,
people collecting the flowers are burning Mahua leaves thereby damaging the
areas and causing wide-scale forest fires, he pointed out. Moreover,
the pollution from polythene materials used by visitors is threatening the
ecology of the area.
The polythene containers strewn all over the
area make their way to agriculture field and become a major problem for
farmers, Jaal said further.
GSAC members also sensitised women SHG members
on these issues on the International Women’s Day on Friday.
=================================
VILLAGE
YOUTH TOLD TO SAVE FORESTS FROM FIRE
Tuesday, 26 March 2013 | SUDHIR
MISHRA | BALANGIR | in Bhubaneswar
=======================================================
TThe rising
incidence of forest fire in the district here due to burning of Mahul leaves is
a cause of concern for the environmentalists and officials. The Mahul
collectors are setting the leaves gathered on the ground near the Mahul trees
on fire to clear the ground for easy collection of Mahul. However, little do
they bother that the fire spreads in the forests and causes enormous
losses to the forest properties.
Kulamani Sahu of the District Forestry Forum,
while speaking at a meeting, organised by the Zilla Jungle Suraksha Manch and
RCDC and supported by OXFAM, at Dangar Munda village, 50km from here, observed
that forest fire guts huge forest resources including rare tree species,
medicinal plants and herbs, while killing many eco friendly insects and
animals.
“We should prepare ourselves to tackle the forest fire
in village level, besides informing the forest officials to douse the fire,
whenever detected. Moreover, the village youth should be involved in forest
protection and a cadre of youth should be developed to deal with forest fire
and forest protection,” Sahu suggested.
Although so far 198 community claims over forest in
Balangir district have been submitted, not a single claim has been settled
favourably.
The joint verification process by the Revenue and the
Forest department has not been taken up on a war footing in the district,
pointed out RCDC regional manager Amar Gouda. He urged the forest
officials to expedite the process of joint verification to settle the community
claims.
The joint verification process should be taken up at the
Palli Sabha level and the forest and the revenue officials should be present
there so that the community claims be taken up and settled at a faster rate.
This is not being observed in most of the cases, pointed
Prabhat Mishra of RCDC, adding that the forest cover according to the Forest
Survey of India report has increased by three square kilometer. For this,
people guarding and protecting the forest and the forest officials deserve
credit, he said.
Members from eighteen forest protection committees
attended the meeting and expressed concern over the destruction of forest due
to forest fire. The members also expressed worries over massive timber cuttings
by the people and their illegal transactions.
Assistant conservator of forest Goutam Naik and
forester BN Mishra, assured all cooperation to the villagers in dealing with
the forest fire and other problems and informed the committee members about the
schemes/provisions of incentive for person providing
information on forest fire. Naik also spoke about the various schemes of forest
department. Thakur Sahu presided over the meeting.
=====================================================
MAHUL SEASON:
MANMADE FIRES GULP DOWN HUGE FORESTS
Thursday, 04 April 2013 | SUDHIR MISHRA
| BALANGIR | in Bhubaneswar
=Even as the natural falling of Mahua flower in
the KBK and other districts of western Odisha has started bringing cheer for
millions of rural poor and tribal people who earn their subsistence for a
minimum four months by collecting it during the lean period, yet the phenomenon
has posed a grave threat to the forest properties by causing fire.
And often the fire is man-made.
As this year the Mahua flower has started
falling since the first week of March, the collectors set fire to the
leaves gathered around the trees. The fire rapidly spreads towards
the forest and gulps huge patches, consequently bringing irreparable
loss to forest resources.
“People burn the leaves to collect Mahul. The
leaves after having been reduced to ashes help the people collect Mahul as it
becomes visible.
Since the forest is left unattended,
the fire spreads and keeps catching more and more areas. A few days
ago, there was fire in Kusha jungle. At Dangarmunda, I also
saw fire in Dabkani jungle. These forests were set ablaze
by the Mahul collectors,” said a villager at a meeting organised to observe the
World Forestry Day on March 21 last here.
In a majority of area
in Balangir district, mostly dry deciduous forests are
found. The deciduous trees usually shed their leaves by
February. Forest fire usually occurs between second week of
March and second week of April. Once the fire breaks out, it spreads
very rapidly and burns whatever comes in its way, be it plant, animal or
insect, pointed out a civil society activist.
First of all, the fire affects the
local poor people whosurvive by collecting fruits, leaves and other non-timber forest produces
(NTFPs). The worst affected are the Vaidyas, who collect creepers, bushes,
small plant roots, and tubers, which are used for preparation of medicines,
observed an expert on environment Sushil Tripathy.
Slow moving reptiles, lizards, colourful
spiders and many more arthropods are dwindling. The birds which prefer to lay
eggs on ground are losing their habitat along with rapidly reducing population.
The red vultures are on the verge of extinction due the ground fire. They
prefer to lay eggs on ground at the hill top. As
the forest fire spreads to the hill top, it damages everything
since nobody goes to douse it, Tripathy opined.
“In the forest fire, the eco
friendly earth worms are lost forever. Moreover, those insects which help to create
soil humus, become extinct. Due to absence of the insects, soil
creation process which most cumbersome and
time taking is affected badly.
As the top soil is burnt and lost, the water
absorption capacity of soil declines resulting in rain water run-off, heavy
soil erosion and flood. The depletion of ground water level is a cause of
concern for all. The forest fire has further accentuated the
desertification process in the district,” Tripathy maintained.
The animals also suffer a lot. Many of them
perish and those which manage to escape constantly make forays into the nearby
villages and damage their paddy and other crops. This also gives rise to
man-animal conflict often leading to the death of the animals, he added.
“We should prepare ourselves to tackle forest fire in
village level. We must inform the forest officials to douse
the fire. Moreover, the village youth should be involved
in forest protection and a cadre of youth should be developed to deal
with forest fire and forest protection,” asserted Kulamani
Sahu of the District Forestry Forum.
Besides this, the other reasons for
occurrences of forest fire are leaving the burning remnant of
Bidi/Hukkah by the people visiting forest.
Timber mafia also
triggers forest fire to exploit thesituation. Lack of adequate
training to local people and equipment do deal with adverse situation also
accentuates the problem, he added.
When asked, Balangir DFO Abhiram
Naik said, “To save forests from fire, five protection squads
have been formed in the Balangir forest division. So far,
11cases have been reported in the district. When we have information
of fire, we immediately dispatch a team to douse the fire.
However, there has not been any assessment of
loss due to forest fire in the forests here. We gave
dresses and boots to walk in fire and scooper. We are also
developing fire line around the forests.”
===============================================================================
FOREST FIRE,
HABITAT LOSS: WILD CATS PERISHING
Wednesday, 29 May 2013 | SUDHIR MISHRA
| BALANGIR | in Bhubaneswar
The decline in number of wild cats,
locally known as Bhau Bilei, has worried many wildlife enthusiasts and
environment lovers. The cat was a part of folklore and while villagers slept in
the open, they often cautioned their children not to venture at night as wild
cat would carry them away to forest. Bhau Bilei used to be very notorious,
which was in the habit of taking away the villagers’ hens from their houses.
The wild cats lived in bushy forest almost
near village areas and ate rats found in open fields and forests. However,
the animal’s number has been declining rapidly.
Forest fire, habitat loss and rising temperature
are believed to be responsible for the decline in wild cats. Most of the wild
cats give birth to babies in January and April in bushy areas. While many cats
and their babies are burnt to death in forest fire, rising
temperature affects the cat’s mating process, which is another cause of its
decline, forest official sources said.
“In my childhood days (three decades ago), it was common
to find wild cats near the sugarcane field adjacent to my village. From there,
they would move into houses and steal hens. Moreover,
the forests were dense. A section of people would kill wild cats and
consume its meat as it was believed that it contained medicinal properties
which cured arthritis.
Regular poaching and loss of habitat resulted in further
decline in the cat’s numbers in this region,” pointed out a villager.
With rapid loss of forest cover, changing life
style, rising temperature, not only are the wild cats, but various other wild
animals are perishing. So it is high time we took steps to save these animals.
==================================================
FOREST FIRE BIG WORRY FOR B’NGIR OFFICIALS
Saturday, 17 March 2018 | PNS | BALANGIR | in Bhubaneswar
Even as the forest officials in the district were
happy that the percentage of forest cover has increased
substantially, their happiness was short-lived as rising number
of fire incidents has been devouring forest area, besides
the flora and fauna since the onset of summer this year.
The frequencies of the forest fire have kept
the fire squad boys on toes as at times fire is reported
from multiple points.
Forest fire raged Sunadei reserve forest area
on March 13 night and a plantation in Upparuddar village in Sargard section in
Loisingha range on March 14 was also damaged due to fire.
Villagers telephoned to local forest officials and range
officials but they did not get timely response.
Upparuddar VSS president alleged that no forest official
reached to douse the fire which is distressing.
“On March 14, I inquired about the situation from Loisingha range
officer who said that multiple fire points were reported and that
became a reason why there were delays in reaching the spot,” said DFO Sameer
Satpathy.
Forest department cannot fight fire alone with
squads. Why no sensitisation meeting and training of forest officials
are held this year like last year where all forest officials starting
from DFO and ACF Range Officers were on the field with the staff to
fight forest fire successfully, asked a local here.
==========================================
Fire damages foFire damages forestland in
Balangir dist
Monday, 08 March
2021 | SUDHIR MISHRA |
Even as the fire in the Similipal forest is
yet to be fully controlled, a forest fire has been reported from Balangir
district.
According to the Forest Survey of India fire
alerts issued daily, around 350 fire points are detected in the Balangir Forest
Division by satellite tracking. Forest official are on their toes to rise to
the occasion. The department is constrained by shortage of ground-level staffs
to deal with the situation. It has become common for locals to witness forest
fires in Mathkhai, Chandali and nearby forests and mountains at Ghat along the
Balangir-Patnagarh road since last week. Trees in the Balangir forest shed
their leaves by the month of February. The fallen leaves serve as a
major cause of aggravating forest fire further.The burnt forest surface tells a
tale. On Saturday night, there was a major fire in the aforesaid area, said a
local, who frequently visits Patnagarh.
After the outbreak of forest fire, it is birds
which suffer a lot as their habitats are gutted or damaged and they cannot stay
in smoky environment. They are seen flying over there trying to escape from
heat and smoke, but only to die.
Nobody knows how many eco-friendly reptiles,
animals, birds, insects die during the forest fires as their habitats are
engulfed by huge fires from all sides leaving them no space to escape. On
Sunday morning, smoke billowing out from the forests could be visible from
roadside.
There were reports of fire in the Matkhai
forest and its spread quickly towards top making it difficult to douse it. “We
are doing our best to check the fire,” said a forest official, who was fighting
fire atop the hill. “The fire will be contained soon,” he added.
Set zero forest fire goal in Odisha: Experts
Friday, 16 April
2021 | SUDHIR MISHRA | BALANGIR
The forest department must set a goal of zero
fires in forthcoming times. This was among the important views emerged in a
webinar on forest fire held recently, organised by the RCDC and the Odisha
Commons Exchange.
The motto was to understand the present
situation of forest fire in Odisha, especially in the context of this having
happened at greater frequency in the months of February. Forest fire in Odisha
usually occurs from March to May.
And much to the surprise of many, this year
the forest fire started from mid of February and the huge forest fire in the
Similipal Biosphere reserve captured the attention of the national and
international media with Odisha topping the list of forest fire incidents in
the country. According to the Forest Survey of India (FSI), at least 5,291
forest fires were recorded in Odisha between February 22 and March 1, the
highest in the country for the same period. Forest and Environment Minister
Bikram Keshari Arukh informed the State Assembly recently that since January
this year till date ( March 24, 2021) 23,473 fire incidents have been reported
in the State devouring about 159 square km of forest.
Joining the webinar, many experts on forest
and enviornment kept their opinions as to how to effectively deal with the
forest fires. Incidents of forest fire are increasing. Explaining the various
causes, Prabhat Mishra told how community members have been traditionally
proactive on reporting and putting out forest fires in association with workers
of the Forest Department. Forest fires are more prominent in deciduous
forests and maximum number of incidents occurred in south Odisha, opined RCCF
BrahmspurManoj Mahapatra. He called upon all stakeholders to cooperate in
preventing and mitigating forest fires. Mahapatra pointed out how the
department was taking note of community efforts and providing incentives
to encourage positive changes. He sought cooperation of all to fight forest
fire effectively.
The process of approving individual and
community forest rights should be stepped up to enthuse the community to do
more and the process of CFR management should go a long way in protecting and
conserving forests, pointed out Satya Pattnaik.
He was of the opinion that capacity of all
stakeholders must be strengthened and coordination must improve to address the
menace.As per the satellite data, forest fire clusters are developing in
certain pockets of Odisha and it is important to keep watch on them. He dwelt
on the climatic factors that could be driving the fires, said Barna Baibhav
Panda The Forest Department continues to look upon the forest as a production
unit.
It should change its stance and concentrate on
conservation of forests with an eye towards enriching the livelihoods of the
forest dwellers, said Gitanjali Sahoo, adding that the State must strengthen
the Forest Department and enhance coordinated efforts.Forests are vital and all
the inhabitants of the Earth should think of themselves as one community and
look after the welfare of forests, said Nibedita Dash.
While Odisha excelled in achieving zero
casualty in the disaster management like of cyclone ,efforts of the State
Forest Department should be to achieve the goal of zero fires, opined Dr Ambika
Nanda.The Forest Department should engage and involve youths in mitigating
forest fires, besides sensitizing the women on forest fire and its prevention,
opined Kailash Dash.
Community is moving away from viewing forests
as an essential resource particularly as modern life is moving away from nature
towards artificial goods like plastic and proper marketing of MFP could reverse
the stance, said Kulamani Sahu.There is the need for a long term plan to
mitigate forest fires keeping in view the impacts of climate change.
There is also a need to renew the interests of
the community in forests and ensure their rights over resource. The community
is best managers of forests and traditional ways of forest management must be
renewed, said Pradeep Brahma.
=========================
Cycle rally in B’ngir to sensitise people on forest fire
Thursday, 18 March
2021 | PNS | BALANGIR
With a view to sensitising villagers on forest
fire and its prevention, a bicycle rally was flagged off by retired professor
Madhusudan Pati on Wednesday. Participated by students, youths, social workers,
journalists and staffs of the Forest Department including the local Divisional
Forest Officer (DFO), the rally marched through the town and then a meeting was
held at village Gandhrel, which witnessed forest fire recently.
Village women, youths and members of the Vana
Surakshya Samiti participated in the programme. They were told how forest fire
occurs and how it could be prevented. The speakers included Hemanta Panda,
Bolangir DFO Sameer Satpathy, Birendra Jhankar, Sudhir Mishra, among many
others. Responding to a point mentioned by Balangir Block Chairman Golap Bag,
DFO Satpathy announced that the Vana Surakshya Samti (VSS) of Phuljharan
village would get the incentive announced by the Government for checking and
recording zero occurrence of forest fire in their forest.
VSS members of Gandhrel would also get
torchlights which would help them climb down from the mountain after dousing
the forest fire in night, Satpathy said.All those present in the meeting took a
pledge to check occurrence of forest fire and save the forests.
Even as the fire in the Similipal forest is
yet to be fully controlled, a forest fire has been reported from Balangir
district.
According to the Forest Survey of India fire
alerts issued daily, around 350 fire points are detected in the Balangir Forest
Division by satellite tracking. Forest official are on their toes to rise to
the occasion. The department is constrained by shortage of ground-level staffs
to deal with the situation. It has become common for locals to witness forest
fires in Mathkhai, Chandali and nearby forests and mountains at Ghat along the
Balangir-Patnagarh road since last week. Trees in the Balangir forest shed
their leaves by the month of February. The fallen leaves serve as a
major cause of aggravating forest fire further.The burnt forest surface tells a
tale. On Saturday night, there was a major fire in the aforesaid area, said a
local, who frequently visits Patnagarh.
After the outbreak of forest fire, it is birds
which suffer a lot as their habitats are gutted or damaged and they cannot stay
in smoky environment. They are seen flying over there trying to escape from
heat and smoke, but only to die.
Nobody knows how many eco-friendly reptiles,
animals, birds, insects die during the forest fires as their habitats are
engulfed by huge fires from all sides leaving them no space to escape. On
Sunday morning, smoke billowing out from the forests could be visible from
roadside.
There were reports of fire in the Matkhai
forest and its spread quickly towards top making it difficult to douse it. “We
are doing our best to check the fire,” said a forest official, who was fighting
fire atop the hill. “The fire will be contained soon,” he added.
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