BHUBANESWAR: If the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan is taking the help of IAF to douse the wildfire, the forest department in Odisha is using drones to keep track of forest fire in the
Similipal Tiger Reserve
(
STR
).
On a day more than 1,000 forest fires were detected across the state on Wednesday, as many as six drone cameras were deployed to monitor the rising flames inside and on the fringes of the STR in Mayurbhanj district, which had seen a massive outbreak this time last year.
Based on the images captured by these drones, corrective measures are being taken promptly, the STR authorities said. These unmanned aerial vehicles are also serving as a deterrent for villagers who habitually set patches of forests on fire to collect mahua or even poachers who do so to hunt animals.
STR field director M
Yogajayanand
said, “Three drone cameras are being used within the the
Similipal
reserve, while the remaining three have been deployed in the Baripada, Rairangpur and Karanjia divisions. At present, altogether six drone cameras are in use in the Similipal landscape. Firefighters are also on the job on the ground at many places.”
He added that the use of drones within Similipal has its own limitations because of the hilly terrain and inaccessible roads. “We are restricting the reach of the drones to within a radius of one km. We get to see the footages in the monitor of the control stick. We keep changing the places for wide coverage,” the top wildlife official of the Similipal landscape said.
In last March, Similipal had witnessed a massive forest fire. Dousing the flames then had proved to be a Herculean task even for the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force. A team from the Centre had also visited the affected areas to assess the losses.
Spread over 2,750 sq km, Similipal boasts of a genetic variation of the Royal Bengal Tiger. It is also home to melanistic (black-striped) tiger, which was first spotted there in 1993. But it was not before 2007 that the authorities could get the the first pictorial evidence of its presence.
On Wednesday, many parts of the state witnessed fire points, including large ones, apart from Similipal. In Similipal, two fire points were detected, which were doused using blowers.