Steps being taken to protect wild flora and fauna from harsh summer

Heatwave conditions are prevailing in several parts of Rayalaseema and Karnataka, which has put a lot of pressure on the Forest department officials in Anantapur as a major part of the forest land is close to Karnataka border or Chittoor and Kurnool districts.

The temperature which was around 42 degrees Celsius for the past one week, touched 43 degrees Celsius on Sunday and the forest officials turned their focus on controlling / preventing forest fires and ensuring availability of water for wild animals. The recent incident of a leopard coming out of the forest and entering a fringe village to quench its thirst created a scare as it attacked a shepherd. The dogs accompanying the shepherd had saved him.

About 200 saucer pits or artificial waterholes created by the Forest department for wild animals are regularly filled by six water tankers (Vanadhara) owned by the department and whenever needed additional ones are hired, says District Forest Officer A. Chandra Sekhar, talking to The Hindu.

“What comforts us is that the large number of farm ponds, trenches and watersheds created by the department are now brimming with water thanks to the three days of rains after April 16,” he says. Only a few places in Kadiri, Kalyandurg and Penukonda need regular supply of water for waterholes.

Further, 2,18,346 small shallow trenches dug in the forest and 19 check dams that have been constructed, are more or less full with water now, he points out. Another 150 km of deep trenches were dug during 2018-19 in close to 265 fringe villages that serve as life-savers. Desilting of 19,500 cu metres was done and there are 1,754 percolation tanks in the natural ponds inside the forest land.

Awareness drive

There have been minor incidents of forest fires, but the awareness sessions conducted by the department officials at the grassroots level in fringe villages has helped 52 forest beats out of 72 in Anantapur district go without any fire incident this year, Mr. Chandra Sekhar explains. “Out of the 114 foot-soldiers I have on the field, 19 are women and they go alone in the night and participate in the Palle Nidra, a scheme taken up by us to create awareness among people on the need to protect wildlife, the methods to extinguish minor fires and preventive steps to be followed,” he adds.

There exists scrub forest in revenue hillocks in 1.65 lakh hectares and the most vulnerable are Bukkapatnam and Penukonda forest ranges for forest fires. There were incidents of miscreants setting fire to forest. Eleven persons were arrested and five cases registered on several accused persons – one case in Tadipatri and two each in Kadiri and Bukkapatnam.

Wall writings in fringe villages helped a lot in creating awareness and the ground-level staff regularly conduct grama sabhas near the walls and make villagers read the slogans. An interesting one is: “We are losing Stree (woman) and Tree - while one gives new life the other sustains life.