The Hindu : Karnataka News : Fire on Chamundi Hills destroys forest tracts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 01, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Fire on Chamundi Hills destroys forest tracts

By Our Staff Correspondent

The forest fire that ravaged Chamundi Hills in Mysore. — Photo: M.A. Sriram

MYSORE, FEB. 28. A major fire broke out on Chamundi Hills on Monday evening and destroyed large tracts of forest.

This is the fifth major fire that has devastated the Chamundi Hills in the past three months and it was only recently that a fire had broken out close to Nandi statue, adjacent to the footsteps leading to the hilltop and close to the Ayyappa Swamy Temple.

The extent of the damage in today's incident is not clear, but this is reckoned to be more intense than the earlier fires that ravaged the Chamundi Hills in the past three months. The fire was visible from the Mysore-Nanjangud Road on the eastern ridge and environmentalists and experts have expressed fears that the hills will take many years to recover from the damage.

Shrub jungle

Experts say the vegetation of Chamundi Hills is renewing because of conservation measures initiated by the Forest Department. A study of the Chamundi Hills vegetation shows that rejuvenated shrub jungle dominated its profile, but frequent fires are impeding its growth and will leave the hills barren in due course.

As an immediate impact of the fire and the destruction of the low-level shrub vegetation, leopards and other carnivores in the hills will be forced to move out in search of prey. Since the forest fires have destroyed the ground level vegetation that provided a camouflage for hares etc., the latter will shift to different locations leaving the larger predators with no option but to enter the human landscape. It is pertinent to note that Chamundi Hills had emerged as a good habitat for leopards which feed on smaller animals like hares that found shelter in the shrub jungles. If the shrub jungles are destroyed, the prey will move away and the leopards will be forced to enter the surrounding villages, thus increasing the man-animal conflict.

Long-term impact

A long-term negative impact will be on the soil and sources said that destruction of the ground level vegetation will leave the hills exposed. Once the monsoon arrives, the humus found on the top soil and which takes hundreds of years to form, will be washed away and the hills will be unable to support vegetation in the future. Chamundi Hills also suffers from encroachment with residential colonies coming up around it in the absence of a buffer zone to delineate the geographical boundary of the hills. Hence, environmentalists have expressed concern over the latest fire and called for the constitution of a buffer zone.

Monitoring

The sources said forest fires are always man-made and a constant monitoring of the movement of the villagers into the forests is necessary. The villagers around the hills move into the forests for firewood and cause damage to the vegetation leaving the hills vulnerable to fire. The inability to protect the Chamundi Hills will also have an impact on tourism as there are plans to develop the area as a major tourist destination with a safari park, rope way and herbal gardens.

Forest Department officials suspect the fire to be the handiwork of local villagers who are peeved with the department for restricting their entry along the hillock's periphery. However, environmentalists also drew attention to the raucous behaviour of the urban youth some of whom go on a drinking binge in the secluded areas and have a tendency to break beer bottles and set it ablaze "for fun."

It is pertinent to note that the citizens of Mysore had called for establishing a 500-metre boundary around the Chamundi Hills as a buffer zone and freeze all development activities that violate its ecological integrity.

But the Government has turned a blind eye to the encroachment and human pressure that are damaging the hills.

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