Bhubaneswar: With wildfire engulfing a large chunk of forest area in the Similipal Tiger Reserve for the past several days, noted personalities from the State on Tuesday sought the attention of the central and State governments to take urgent action to curb the blaze from further destroying the reserve.
Union PNG and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan expressed great dismay about the forest fires raging in the tiger reserve and urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik along with Union Forest and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar to take immediate ameliorative measures on the alarming situation.
Pradesh Congress president of the State, Niranjan Patnaik also took to social media to show his horror at the situation.
"The information coming from Similipal, Mayurbhanj is extremely disturbing. The scale of fire is massive. If the govt does not try to combat it, Odisha’s forest cover may never be the same again," Patnaik wrote in his Twitter page.
Princess of erstwhile royal family of Mayurbhanj, Akshita Bhanj Deo expressed said the situation has appalled her more because apart from a few state media, NO national media is covering the news on how Asia’s second largest biosphere reserve has been continuously burning for the past several days.
In her Twitter handle, Bhanj Deo has also requested national/global media attention in exposing the situation in the reserve.
According to sources, the forest is burning for the past 10 days and the flames continue to spread from one part to another. The fire has already spread to eight out of the total 21 ranges of the Similipal forest division.
It was alleged that poachers deliberately set the forest on fire so that they can poach wild animals on the other parts of the forest. Some people attributed it to intelligence failure of the forest department.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said that officers have been asked to take immediate action in the matter.