Forest Fire @ Nilgiris, Masinagudi

[Praveen Siddannavar]

I shot this photograph in March 2009 on Ooty road near Masinagudi, it was not that hot. So I am still wondering if it is a natural forest fire or any human interference. I used my low range lens, i did'nt have the 400mm at that time.

[Lakshminarayanan Nataraja]

Hello,

There are no known natural forest fires in India - especially in the south Indian jungles.

All are man made.

Time immemorial, tribals have been setting forest fires. They do this to promote luxuriant growth of grass for grazing. There are other unknown reasons too as to why they set fire. Shift and burning cultivation is very old in our country.

Those days forests were plenty and these stray forest fires caused negligible damage. However with less than 6% forest cover, any forest fire is catastrophic.

In places like Nilgiris, not only tribals set fire. There are other factors - tourists, anti socials etc.

In a dry forest littered with leaves even an unlighted cigar is dangerous enough to cause immense damage.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Seems to be a big fire. Unfortunate that people set fire to forests. Technically speaking a forest fire can happen due to natural reasons as well. However, they are very very few and rare. Most of the times it is man made. I have seen tribals cooking and forgetting to wipe out the fires. Tourists throwing their half lit cigarettes. In a number of cases, poachers light a fire in a semicircular area and wait for animals to move out into the open so that they can kill them.

This one seems to be for cultivation.

[Bibhav Behera]

Hi Praveen,
This looks like a manmade fire. Seen loads of tribals do the same in Orissa too... The fires go out of control and create havoc very often.

In chandaka (primarily a bamboo forest) controlled fires are made to get rid of the dry leaves on the ground to prevent actual forest fires. They, if not monitored can also go to destroy a lot of habitat for fauna.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Thats a very devasting photograph. Instead of lush green mountains, what you can see is gray and ash everywhere. It is unfortunate that people do it intentionally for their own benefit. Good record photograph.

[Subramanya Shankar]

Really unfortunate state of affairs. Pristine forest being lost due to man's greed