Forest fires on the rise in State
[ad_1]
Forest fires are on the rise in the State. More than 15,200 cases have been reported in the final 5 months.
During the corresponding interval the earlier 12 months, 9,800 forest fires had occurred, affecting 6,200 hectares.
In March alone this 12 months, 11,895 forest fires had been reported, destroying 6,347 hectares. Most of those had occurred in the Nallamala forest falling beneath Kadapa and Kurnool districts.
‘Good rains also a trigger’
While extra causes than one are cited for the spurt in forest fires, the one which surprises is sweet rains!
According to info, good rains result in progress of untamed grass and bushes, which give an ideal situation for eruption of fireside later.
“Of the total number of forest fires in the last five months, more than 3,000 have been reported in the forest areas of Kadapa and Kurnool districts. In the Visakha Agency area, about 2,000 hectares of forest cover has been destroyed. The Forest Department has acted swiftly in dousing the fires,” says Prateep Kumar, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF).
Tech edge
“Forest personnel are pressed into service based on satellite information that pinpoints the exact origin of the fire. An officer of the rank of DFO monitors the operation. We could could control the spread and save wildlife,” says Mr. Prateep Kumar.
The satellite-based monitoring of forest fires is certainly one of the catastrophe help exercise from the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC).
Satellite knowledge is processed at the NRSC in close to real-time and data is made obtainable to the customers (FSI and State forest departments) inside half-hour, he says.
“Since 2019, data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite is also being disseminated. The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) covers 1 km X 1 km while SNPP covers 375 m X 375 m. So, we will get more number of alerts,” explains K. Gopinatha, Additional PCCF (Vigilance).
[ad_2]