TimesView The report by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) on the blaze in Bandipur in February makes useful recommendations: If forest fires are declared a national disaster, the Centre would have to draw up guidelines and provide funding to combat such calamities. Additionally, 2,200km of well-maintained fire lines would certainly help protect tigers in the reserve. However, while it may not have been within the NTCA’s purview to assign blame, the authorities — who quickly labelled the fire an act of sabotage — must take exemplary action against the guilty if it was indeed a case of arson. BENGALURU: A recent report by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), on the forest-fire incidents that took place in Bandipur Tiger Reserve in February, has suggested forest fires to be declare a national disaster.The report by Rajendra G Garawad, assistant inspector general of forest, NTCA (southern zone), Bengaluru, is based on field visits between February 25 and 27 to assess the impact of the fire on the flora and fauna in the reserve.“NTCA may consider suggesting the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEF & CC) to declare the forest fires as national disaster as it may lead to formulation of a national-level policy, guidelines for forest fire and funding support for disaster management to the affected states,” the report added.The report has also called for reorganisation of the existing administration of Bandipur tiger reserve to include at least two to three posts of deputy directors, who can assist the field director in the tiger conservation management. “Currently, almost all the office and field work has to be carried out by the field director. As a result, the office-bearer is unable to devote sufficient time for proper planning and implementation of various time-bound management interventions,” the report added.The report, however, has not blamed anyone for the fire incident and only analysed the spread, impact and necessary measures to tackle such incidents in the future. NTCA officials have observed that the fire in Bandipur had not burnt the forest area uniformly as factors such as availability of the biomass, wind speed, soil moisture content and ambient air temperature played their role in the blaze.“Even in the completely burnt areas of dry deciduous forest patches, the ground fire had not affected the standing trees except the snags and other deadwood lying on the forest floor. During the field visit, the team didn’t come across any carcass of large mammal. However, there is a possibility that smaller lifeforms like amphibians and species with limited mobility might be affected by the forest fire,” the report added.The report has also suggested creation and maintenance of 2200km of fire line (a strip of open land in forest to curb the spread of fire) within the tiger reserve along the inter-state border between Bandipur and Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu . “The existing fire lines should be digitised in geographic information system (GIS) domain to plan fire management activities. Repeated burning of fire lines in vulnerable area will reduce the fuel load,” it added.The report also calls for a comprehensive fire management plan for the tiger reserve. “The plan should include details about fire-prone areas and their mapping, existing fire-line network, requirement of man power for managing fires, mock drills for field staff, strategies to be adopted for containing fire and post-fire management interventions of affected forest areas,” it added.Awareness campaigns with local communities from villages or forest areas vulnerable for forest firesUse of alerts issued by Forest Survey of IndiaProcurement of logistics required for fire-fighting inside the tiger reserveHolding inter-state coordination meetings at regular intervals with neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and KeralaProper management of media by providing factual information about the forest fire

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