Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Odisha Similipal Forest Reserve or known as Similipal Tiger Reserve caught a huge fire due to the temperature rise. The Odisha administration is working in action to extinguish the flame that recapitulates to burn on.
After the incident Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik held a high-level review meeting and also expressed Similipal Forest as a valuable asset of the world. CM Patnaik also directed the officials to ensure the conservation of the forest and take precautionary measures to avoid the recurrence of forest life.
The absence of post-monsoon rain last year has led to cut down the winter and raise the temperature across the state in February that has led to such wildfire in Shimilipal forest. The forest is spread over an area of 2,750 square kilometres. The fire has so far gorged eight out of the total 21 ranges of the Similipal forest division causing widespread damage and death of endangered animals.
The matter came into the limelight and was noticed when the princess of the erstwhile royal family of Mayurbhanj, Akshita M Bhanjdeo tweeted about the incident on March 1 quoting- “Mayurbhanj had devastating forest fires this past week, a week ago close to 50kg of ivory was found, a few months ago local youth reported on sand/timber mafias in Simlipal. Apart from a few state media, NO national media is covering Asia’s 2nd largest biosphere burning”.
Later Mona Sharma, Odisha Additional Chief Secretary, Forest & Environment informed that the fire has been brought under control and that there has been no loss of lives in the incident. She further informed that big trees have not been affected and the Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs) have been directed to notify the state government and District Collectors on fire alerts.
As per the forest department official around 1,000 personnel which includes 250 forest guards are engaged to extinguish the forest fire and 40 fire tenders and 240 blower machines are being used to contain the flame.
Even PCCF Wildlife is monitoring the situation on the spot and a standard operating procedure has been issued for controlling the fire and no major trees have been damaged.
Image Source – Google
