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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Man arrested in UP's Auraiya for rape, murder of minor cousin on same day she tied rakhi on him
Auraiya: A 33-year-old man has been arrested in Auraiya for the alleged rape and murder of his 14-year-old cousin on the night of Raksha Bandhan, just hours after she had tied a rakhi on him.
According to police, the accused, identified as Surjeet, attempted to mislead investigators by staging the crime scene to look like a suicide. The incident occurred on Saturday night when Surjeet, reportedly in a state of heavy intoxication, went to his uncle's home where the victim lived. He is accused of sexually assaulting the sleeping teenager, killing her, and then hanging her body.
The victim's father discovered his daughter's body the next morning and alerted the authorities.
Officials immediately suspected foul play upon arriving at the scene. "Blood stains and other signs clearly indicated this was not suicide," stated Auraiya Superintendent of Police (SP), Abhijeet Shankar.
During the initial inquiry, Surjeet drew suspicion upon himself by aggressively answering questions that were intended for the victim's immediate family. A post-mortem examination subsequently confirmed that the minor had been sexually assaulted.
Following the forensic report, Surjeet was arrested. "He confessed to the crime during interrogation," SP Shankar confirmed.
