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4 reports of tekdi fires in 10 days worry environments, Pune civic authorities
The biggest fire reported was spread across five kilometres and was spotted by volunteer Shankar Pandey in Mann, Hinjewadi
Over the past 10 days, there have been six fires reported on tekdis (hillocks), according to a group of volunteers working on the various tekdis in and around the city as well as the forest department and the fire brigade of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
“Every year we create a fire control line to control such fires from spreading. Citizens are alert and message us, we go and extinguish the fire. This time it has happened four times in 10 days, twice in Pashan and twice in Sus Nande reserve forest. We have taken guidelines from experts on how to extinguish fire. When the fire brigade team comes to extinguish, we learnt the basics of tackling the fire without putting ourselves at risk,” said Pushkar Kulkarni of Save Baner Hills.
The group of volunteers in every area like Vetal tekdi, Baner, Pashan Sus Gaon, Bavdhan, Taljai, have formed a group ‘Prevent Forest Fires’ that includes forest range officials and fire brigade personnels.
The biggest fire reported was spread across five kilometres and was spotted by volunteer Shankar Pandey in Mann, Hinjewadi. “The fire was spotted at 12 noon on February 11 and I immediately alerted the other team members and then, the forest department.”
“It took us five hours to bring the tekdi fire under control,” said another volunteer Naresh Sonawane from Hinjewadi.
According to Deepak Shrotre of Vasundhara Abhiyaan and an avid tekdi lover, “Every year in January and February, there are instances of forest/tekdi fires taking place. There are three reasons for these fires - people smoking on the tekdi and throwing the cigarette buds without really extinguishing it, or people with nuisance value and lastly those who do it out of greed for creating barren lands atop tekdis.”
“On Wednesday, there was a massive fire atop the Katraj tunnel and it took several tankers to extinguish it,” said Prashant Ranpise, fire officer, PMC
“Environment is disregarded as we are not sensitive about it. We have seen many incidents this season and there is a lot of dryness in the air and grass grows fast during the winter and has less moisture, hence it catches fire easily and strong winds help spread the flames,” said forest official, Rahul Patil.
