Images of burnt animals in Bandipur fake: Karnataka Forest Chief
Bandipur: A major fire has broke out at the Bandipur forest area for last three days. Which has now reportedly spread across 8 km stretch, and has affected wildlife in the forest area of India’s major Tiger Reserve. Bandipur has the highest number of big cats across the India.
For last five days, officials at the Bandipur reserve are busy fighting one of the devastating forest fires reported in the state’s history with, thousands of acres of forest land burnt down and the fire and forest officials still struggling to control the fire.
Amidst the fight against fire, the officials are also battling to tackle the social media army, which is firing in images depicting a horrible condition of the wildlife. Images showing several animals lying dead on the forest land, due to the fire, have been doing rounds on social media applications.
Punati Shridhar, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), who heads the Forest department, spoke to Vartha Bharati over phone call on Monday and rubbished all such reports and added that the wildlife has not had much of an impact and so far they have not come across any dead animal, in their operation.
Shridhar, who himself is in the field along with other officials in Bandipur, added “We haven’t come across any dead animal so far, the pictures on social media must be of somewhere else, we are in the field and there is no wildlife deaths reported”.
“Animals are heat sensitive, whenever such fire breaks out anywhere, the animal migrate to safer spots of the forest to adjust with the heat” he said.
However, in a report published in Times of India, adds that it noticed a Python, burnt antlers of a deer and squirrel burnt alive. To this Shridhar told vartha Bharati "It might be true, a little damage to the wild life will definitley be there, and those burnt animal must be very young, who couldn't move to the other parts of jungle in time. But the damage is being exaggeratedly shown on social media, and a wrong image of the current situation here is being shown".
Speaking about the cause of fire Shridhar said “We know that this is an act of sabotage, and it is a man made fire, the forest officials had in last few weeks initiated action against a few people here, and this act, we suspect is their retaliation”
“So the common people should be careful of what they share about the incident, as sharing such pictures can also be a part of the conspiracy of those who conspired the whole incident” Shridhar added.
“We have definite clues about those responsible for setting off the fire, but for now our priority is to stop the fire first and then take action”
About the current situation at the forest reserve he added “We have called for Indian Air Force (IAF) choppers to assist us dousing the fire”.
He hoped that the officials will win over the fire by today evening while adding that the fire was doused on Sunday evening, but due to winds, it took pace again on Monday morning.
Bandipur, which accounts for one in every four Tiger alive in India is also home to several wild animal, and is also a tourism spot.
Below are some of the images that are being circulated on social media, claiming it to be of Bandipur forest, which the officials termed to be fake. Upon more investigations, Vartha Bharati found out that same images were being forwarded and circulated after the California Wildfire in November 2018.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
