Fires destroy sandalwood forests at Chinnar

Thiruvananthapuram: Fires were raging in Sandalwood Reserve at Chinnar in Idukki district on Friday afternoon.

About 50 hectares of sandalwood forests were reportedly destroyed in a few hours. The fire spread in areas where young sandalwood trees were growing.

Temperatures have gone up across Kerala with Punalur and Palakkad recording 37 degree Celsius. Three estate workers suffered sun stroke on Friday at Meppadi from where forest fires were reported early this week.

Chinnar, which was in a rain shadow area, have already dried up in the hot summer. The Forest Department is finding it difficult to check the fires as moisture is absent in the forests. Some minor fires had been reported from the area early this week also.

More areas of Periyar Tiger Reserve have caught fire in the past 48 hours. Fires of have also been detected by satellites in the Shenthurney Wildlife Sanctuary. An interesting aspect is that several of these fires are occurring in areas not far from reservoir (of Mullapieryar and Thenmala Dams respectively).  This could be because of higher human-related activities in the area including tourism.