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THANE: The recurring incidents of forest fires in the Yeoor range over the past few weeks have raised doubts about the cause of these fires and stirred a debate if the frequent blazes are caused due to the soaring temperature or are deliberate man-made efforts.

While over 3.6 hectares of the forest cover within the Yeoor range was burnt down up till Holi, there have been three additional forest infernos in the last two days. It is learnt that the fire that occurred in the Boriwade Kavesar region all throughout Sunday night, reduced 1.5 hectares of the forest cover in ashes.

Residents who were watching the flames towering above the Yeoor hills and spreading fast were frantically calling the forest helpline numbers, after which a team of 12 forest officials rushed to the area and spent hours manually dousing the flames with fresh plants and twigs.

“The forest fires are turning to be too frequent, and every time we see the blaze we call the forest helplines. We have also been noticing a lot of movements and flickering flashlights in the night here, and believe that this has some connection with the forest fires,” said Bedraj Tripathi , a Neelkanth Greens resident.

“Usually these forest fires are sparked by some miscreant leaving behind a burning cigarette bud or matchstick by mistake. The dry fallen leaves immediately catch fire. However, over the past two days, we have seen three fires, in the Kavesar, Pachpakhadi and Manpada regions, a lot of which was not near areas normally accessed by outsiders,” said a forest official.

Meanwhile, wildlife activists and nature enthusiasts said that the forest loss in these fires could have been reduced drastically if the forest department’s fire management and prevention plan was in place.

“The forest department should have taken preventive steps like hiring additional foresters and delegating particular forest blocks to each group, ensuring that there are equal number of staffers touring these blocks at all times,” said Dippak Nair , a Manpada resident.

