Tourism to resume in Bandipur National park today

Tourism activities had come to a standstill since the past three days

Tourism activities at the famous Bandipur National Park, which had been stopped, following the devastating fire that reduced large swaths of forest land to cinders recently, will resume on Monday.

As the Forest department personnel had been pressed into action to extinguish the fire in the reserves, tourism activities had come to a standstill from the past three days.
While a case has been registered at Gundlupet police station against a ‘few’ individuals, for starting the fire, no arrests have been made yet.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Director of Bandipur Tiger Reserve H C Kantharaju said, the identities of the accused has been kept confidential.

 “We will release the names of the accused in a few days,” he said, adding that confidentiality regarding the identity of the accused has been maintained, fearing a ‘retaliatory fire’ by the accused.

Even though the major concerns of the Forest department was addressed with the forest fire being extinguished, staff of the department continued their efforts to prevent the fire from spreading on Sunday.

Range Forest Officer of Bandipur Forest Range S Jayashekar said, two beats of the range has been severely affected by the fire. “The department personnel are checking for the presence of dormant fire in bamboo bushes, that might spread due to winds,” he said.

On Saturday, about 20 personnel from Mudumalai Forest Range in Tamil Nadu also assisted the local personnel in dousing the fire. Sources said, the personnel were dispatched to Bandipur range, as there were fears that the fire might spread to Madumalai range.

Satellite imagery

The Forest department collected GPS recordings of the region affected by the fire, which has been sent to the Information and Communication Technology Centre of the department to assess the exact damage due to the fire.

The readings have been sent to the centre on Saturday, andthe data regarding the total forest area damaged, will be known on Monday, Kantharaju said.  R Gokul, Director of Nagarahole National Park, said, fire in the park has been extinguished.
Staff at the Park have also collected GPS readings to assess the extent of damage.