Pictures will be added soon to this post.Wikipedia says, “Agni is one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is the god of fire and the acceptor of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods. He is ever-young, because the fire is re-lit every day, and also immortal.”
Somehow some people end up thinking that “sacrifice” means destruction of things that are outside themselves. How many sacrifices are really sacrifices? Is not sacrifice supposed to mean “giving up” or “abjure” something that is dear to oneself?
If so, how would one explain the mindless burning of pristine life giving forests? Which God is going to appreciate the wanton destruction of life-support and life itself?
It is with pride, disgust, anger, pain and a lot of other emotions that I write this post.
On 03-Apr-2010 and 04-Apr-2010, a bunch of civilised, urban and normal people were trying desperately to put off a raging fire in Bandipura Tiger Reserve in Karnataka, armed with nothing but a bunche of leaves in hand and a prayer on lips (some with swear words).
Forest fire was reported in the past month at various places including Bandipura, NaagarahoLe and even Mysore. Further, it was a long-weekend on account of Good Friday, and a lot of government servants were expected to be on leave on 2nd, 3rd and 4th April 2010.
As a result, members of Vanya decided to meet in Bandipura to discuss strategies for coming up projects, as well as provide a few blue-collared resources to the Forest Department.
The previous activity, Crowd control exercise at the annual fair on Gopaalaswaamy Betta, the brainchild of Praveen Bidare, had earned critical acclaim from the Forest Department (with one Forest guard claiming that 6 volunteers did more than what 100 Forest Department employees would have managed!).
When 5 of us, Chandrakanth on wheel, accompanied by Anand, Praveen B and his son Mohith, PB’s brother Chetan, and me reached the Entrance to the national park, our intentions were clear. Station us at one place and wait for call from the department if required. Further, the remaining people to join us would be put up at another place so as to spread out the group and minimise the time taken to reach a spot in case of fire.
Arun joined us on the checkpost, and we introduced one another as he was a new entrant to the group, but extremely enthusiastic nonetheless.
At 4 PM we started our long trek to a camp 8 km inside the initially scrub forest. The vegetation however began to change as we moved higher. Availability of water made the growth perenially green and we were on alert for any signs of elephant, whose presence in the area was confirmed by the number of dunghills and broken branches on the way.
Personally, it was pure bliss for me, as I had not stepped inside the Indian jungle since 4 months, after my work required me to travel abroad for an assignment.
A Chital herd, a solitary sambar, a surprised peacock, a strong smell of carrion, and innumerable birds were our companions along the way.
We reached the camp with last few minutes of daylight remaining and I took in the sights and smells of Bandipura. The tiredness of journey was gone in an instant as we drank mouthful of water from the nearby stream.
It was only days after the full moon, and it being an open shelter, without doors, we were treated to a spectacular cloudless night, with various sounds and sights of the forest bathed as though in a powerful searchlight.
The remaining people of the party, due to weekend commitments were to join us only the next morning, and this included Manjunath and his colleague Ravi, Harish, Sunil, Praveen M, Sharma, and Janardhan.
The next morning was a further treat, as we went “Ghooming” with the guards into the wild, over hills and into valleys and when we returned, we were all bathed in sweat, yet completely energised!
The other members of the party had arrived at the checkpost and were stationed there. This proved decisive, as just hours later, the Wireless of the guards with us cackled, and a voice informed, “Jenguddad mele benki biddide” – Signs of fire on Jengudda, a part of Gopaalaswaamy betta range of Bandipur.
Immediately, we were spurred into action and we all rounded-up in front of the camp to see smoke billowing from behind a mountain in our sight. On enquiring, we were told that the route to the mountain from the camp was long and winding, and would take hours to reach there on foot. We were to await further instructions to see if our services would be required and a Jeep would be sent to pick us up.
Absence of mobile signal was frustrating but from the wireless we were able to glean that the other party had already reached the spot in department jeep and were battling the fire with the FD watchers and guards. We had no choice but to just listen to the updates of the fire on the Wireless of the guards.
As the day moved on, there was confirmation the most of the fire was extinguished, but a part of the forest below a steep cliff was still burning due to the non-reachability of the spot with the meagre resources at hand.
A huge transformation took place in the camp that night. Where just the previous day we were able to see and count the zillions of stars in the night sky, the sky was hardly visible this night. It was overcast and spells of rain were reported from places not far off. We were happy with the fact that rain meant a bit more relief from the fire.
In my heart I awaited the next morning, when, I knew, I would witness a spectacle of Bandipur, which gave the prefix “Himavad” to Gopaalaswaamy Betta.
As we awoke the next morning, we saw that there was near opaque mist all round us. Visibility was hardly a few meters. “Himavad” in Sanskrit/Kannada means “Mist-filled” and it did not disappoint us that day. B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.
Our plan was to meet the remainder of the team and have a quick meeting. We availed the service of a Centre for Wildlife Studies jeep, which was ferrying the Research Assistants of line transect for estimation of tiger prey populations in Bandipur, and which coincidentally passed through the camp where we were put up. This saved us valuable energy that we would so desperately need later.
On reaching the entrance checkpost, we met the other Vanya members, and found out that they were still tryin to recover from the fire-extinguishing exercise of the previous day. Harish (who had arrived by bus with Kavya, his cousin) had a huge blister on his hand. Praveen Mahajan’s face looked like it would never lose its redness. Manju already looked like he had lost a few kgs!
We were just cleaning up after breakfast, when Sharma and Janardhan, who had gone to a nearby restaurant to buy water, came back and shouted, “FIRE”.
It was mayhem for the next few min. “ANUUUUUP, FIIIIIRE. COMMMMMMMME” shouted Manju. “Hey, that’s just a cloud”, said a forest watcher. “Get ready boyzzz” was the call from us.
I bought a water bottle from the box shop near the entrance to the forest, but none of the others carried a bottle. Bad planning.
11 of us bundled into one jeep and we were off to a spot not far from the highway inside the forest. It dropped us on the highway. From there on, it was a trek through wonderful (but hot!) elephant country for about 3 km. We were all in high spirits after the previous day’s successful fire combat by the team. But as the path decsended into a valley, I was getting more and more concerned. The vegetation became very dense, and the bamboo grew in dense clumps. Once for all, we reached the spot, and froze.
The tribal watchers were the first to respond. Breaking off branches with green leaves, they ran to the fire and started beating at the base of the bushes and bamboo to extinguish it. We followed suit.
As I turned towards Mahajan for guidance, as he was a part of the previous day fire combat, I realized he was as clueless as me on what to do. It was essentially open country the previous day, but this was in extremely dense bamboo and lantana undergrowth. With smoke literally blocking sunlight above our heads, I realized we were at the mercy of wind and nature.
That’s when a simple but effective tactic of the Forest department watchers worked. Making a broom from the gathered branches, the guards and watchers calculated the path of fire, and at a distance from the fire, began sweeping the ground to clear the ground of all inflammable material like dry bamboo leaves, dry branches etc. We all soon realised how effective this was and followed suit by doing the same. While half the group split and was attacking the fire itself at the base of vegetation wherever we could reach it, the rest of us began drawing a clear line around the fire, which was already spreading fast.
We watched happily as the all-consuming fire came to the fire line, and as though deprived of Oxygen, simply died. However, there was a lot of fire, and the line that would have to be drawn would easily be kilometers long! How tough this was, we found out next.
As Raaju, a tribal watcher, Manju, Sunil, Mahajan and me ran to a place where fire was spreading, the wind changed. In a matter of seconds, the fire was sweeping towards us. I have to admit I did a thing that should be avoided in all situations. I panicked. I had an image of a newspaper headlines the following day, “Foolish techies become fire food in Bandipur”.
Calmly, Raaju asked us to jump across the fire into the smouldering ruins of the fire. Was he crazy? I would find out, as I followed him, and as the fire brushed my leg and I lost some hair to it, gave a jump and landed clean across the fire. That’s when the effectiveness of the idea hit us. The fire, with its course changed, would only be able to swallow whats dry but not whats already burnt! Just as I was congratulating him, I felt searing pain in my feet. Looking down I realized I had come to fight one of nature’s strongest forces in my Bata Sunshine chappals. In the hurry to get to the spot, I had forgotten the shoes in the checkpost. As I cursed loudly on the red-hot smoulders, Raaju asked me to forget the pain. Once the soles are burnt a little, the body will get adjusted, he said.
As we helped Sunil, Manju and Mahajan make the leap, we watched helplessly as the fire went on its changed course and swallowed bush after bush, bamboo after bamboo. Some type of shrew, caught between people and fire decided to take the deep sea rather than devil and walked into the fire, and was killed. Sad.
Suddenly we heard gunshots. I was wondering whether it was department people firing to move the elephants out of the way, or it was poachers making use of the opportunity to shoot fleeing animals (this would explain the fire). It was then we were told that it was the sound of exploding bamboo shoots, which have compressed material between their nodes, and which expand explosively when heated.
We had to circumvent the fire by walking all across the burnt patch and get ahead of the fire. Here, there were already others who were trying to cut across the thick vegetation in an attempt to make a fire line. We joined hands, and it seemed we were gaining on the fire, which was coughing and spluttering in an attempt to gain mileage over us. There was a steep incline with extremely thick undergrowth, and Praveen B and a few watchers started climbing slowly all the while trying to cut a line.
Then came the scariest moment of our stay. Right over us on the incline stood a drying bamboo. When the fire reached it, the wind, as if on cue started blowing hard. Before we could say 101, the bamboo had caught fire. And we all heard the most horrible sound of a roaring fire sweeping towards us very fast. Fear was writ on the faces of all of us. A watcher, who was very calm, instructed, “ Stay put where you are. The fire will stop when the wind does”.
The wind, however showed no inclination to stop, and Manju and me became busy trying to find an escape route to be used within the next minute. There seemed to be none, as one side there was extremely thick undergrowth, where getting stuck when fire reached us meant becoming a barbecue, and the other side there was smouldering bamboo. This, is where, I thought I would lead others if it came to that. In the meantime, we waited for the wind to lessen. After 15 extremely nervous seconds, by which time the bamboo above us was completely gutted, and we were all teary eyed by the thick smoke all round us, the wind stopped.
As we heaved a collective sigh of relief, few of us sat down, few were totally dehydrated while rest of us looked at the steep incline yet to be fire-lined.
That was when I decided we would retreat. For one, the presence of so many people in the small passage was hampering progress of the forest watchers and the few who still had the energy to work. Secondly, we had a kid amongst us, who though was spunky, was definitely a liability if it came to “every man for himself”. Also, a few first timers were so totally exhausted that it seemed that emergency would be needed to rescue them instead of the forest from the fire.
After requesting a watcher to lead us back to the path from where we could find our way, and wishing the others good luck, we all trooped back, checking and licking our wounds. The cuts and gashes which all this while seemed non existent, in the wake of heavy sweating, burned like we were being branded. I meanwhile had the stretching of my leg muscles after 4 months of sedentary lifestyle also to handle, and it was with much difficulty we made the 3 km climb back to the road and the walk was not made easy by the descriptions of Lassi (sweetened yoghurt) which was available in the hotel near the checkpost! You have to remember that most of us had not had a drop of water since we left the checkpost (the bottle that I had bought was alternatively emptied by Praveen, Kavya and a few of the watchers).
It was quite a feat that we somehow managed to reach the checkpost without any of us passing out in the hot sun. However, once we reached the checkpost, we realized what the wise old men have always told us: Water is the real Amruta (Nectar).
Everybody flopped around on the platform of the banyan tree (or was it peepal?) and a feeble attempt by me to get everyone to sit up and have a meeting of sorts was quickly gunned down.
The exhaustion of the day had made us feel getting back to Bangalore was the best thing to do. We decided to have lunch in the hotel near the checkpost, and reach Bangalore by dusk. It was around 1 PM on 04-Apr-2010, Sunday. All thumbed-up this plan as most of us had our mundane lives to attend to from Monday morning.
We had lunch and a zillion glasses of Lassi. The hillock, at the base of which the fire of the morning was being tackled, was in plain view. The fire had not yet subsided, and somewhere there was guilt in a few of us as we were not able to stay with the department people till the end.
Even as we were having lunch, as if a very long serpent was coiling around it, smoke began to rise on the other side of hillock. Clearly the fire had spread from behind the hillock, and would soon spread to parts of forest behind the chain of hillocks.
That was when I bit my teeth and made a resolve. I went to Praveen and told him that I would like to get back helping the department guys. I would surely lose sleep over the next few days if I went back to Bangalore while the forest burned right in front of our eyes. Praveen (Bidare) nodded solomenly and said he would join. He was of the opinion that apart from the fact that it would help in controlling the fire, it would be a motivation to the forest department watchers and guards who were doing a thankless job out in the heat and danger.
Once Praveen B agreed, his brother Chetan agreed too. And against my expectations, Anand said he would be present too. Praveen Mahajan was gheraoed and was stopped from leaving to Bangalore as only had a car apart from Chandrakanth who was too sick to stay. The great man that Mahajan (pun intended) is, he agreed to stay back, inspite of already taking part in fire combat for successive days after driving 230 km from Bangalore.
Thus after sending the remaining (extremely tired and sore) team back, we started back to the checkpost, and informed the officer on phone that 5 people were available. He asked us to stay put for further instructions. The deal (atleast what we told Praveen Mahajan) was that we would provide water to the guards in around 15 bottles plus a plastic pot, help the firefighting team in any way we can for a couple of hours, then head back to the checkpost so that we might leave by dusk and reach Bangalore by midnight.
Praveen M, our driver was instructed to stay put in the checkpost and sleep if possible for the long drive back home in the night. Arun, who had come in bike, decided to sleep till late to avoid the traffic and then start to Bangalore. We decided to leave the 9-year-old Mohith with Arun.
So it was that Praveen B and his son Mohith, Praveen M, Chetan, Anand, Anand and me waited under the shade of the Banyan tree watching the ever increasing smoke billow from the nearby woods.
Soon the jeep came and all of us, including Mahajan jumped in with all the water and he drove off. In the meantime, the jeep radio cackled. The DCF (Deputy Conservator of Forests) of Bandipur had arrived to the scene and was waiting near the checkpost to be ferried to the scene of fire. On being asked if there a shortage of staff for fire combat, the driver replied on the radio that he was currently dropping “10 staff” to the scene of fire! He was asked to immediately get back after dropping us to pick up the DCF who was in a very bad mood. From personal experience, the DCF is one of the nicest and best officers in the Forest Department I have met. That such a raging fire happened under him was but naturally a very big blow to his administrative capabilities. He had taken it personally and was determined to put out the fire as early as possible and if possible catch the perpetrators of the hidieous crime.
From the radio we learnt that fire was raging at atleast 4 different spots at that time.
Soon we reached one of the spots, and the 5 of us with a forest guard were dropped there, along with all the water we had brought for the others fighting in the morning scene of fire! The driver of the jeep, after asking us to be careful, drove away double quick to pick up the DCF.
We met a spectacular scene. A whole clump of bamboo right next to the jeep track was in brilliant flames. The compact seeds would explode once in a while in gunshot-like sound. Even as we watched, fire spread like water towards us, enveloping all in its wake. The guard gave a few quick orders and went with Praveen, through the fire and beyond, trying to find the other end of the fire to prevent it from spreading beyond. Praveen.B and Chetan went with him, while Anand, Mahajan and me concentrated on this side of the fire.
It was crazy. We were in the middle of a protected forest, without anything to protect ourselves, with innumerable protected species, plants, animals and birds alike and we were trying to put off a fire that was threatening to wipe out everything along its way. Once we put out the fire on the track, we next went inside the undergrowth, trying to overtake the fire on game tracks and sweep the floor clean so that we draw a fire line.
Thorn prick after thorn prick, scratch after scratch, burn after burn we continued. At one stage I got a bit too ambitious and lost a few eyelashes. I gave the fire enough respect after that, while beating to extinguish it.
Praveen Mahajan then stumbled on a classic methdology used to start a forest fire. A ball of semi-dried elephant dung, with a few embedded burning splinters of wood in it. In frustration he smashed it to pieces. Bad move. We could have taken a few pictures for documentation.
Once that area was cleared of fire, leaving a few patches burning, as they were inaccessible and isolated between burnt patches anyway, we began searching for Praveen B and the guard.
Thankfully there was enough signal reception there and we were able to reach each other using our walkie-talkie. We then called up the other department teams combating fire. They were at a place a few km further down the valley. The guard said he would reach them and help them. In an amazing and extraordinary show of physical and moral strength and fiber, Chetan and Anand accompanied the guard while we came back and flopped down under the shade of a bush and tried to contact the jeep guy so that he would come and pick us up. No such luck. He was elsewhere and there was no way to contact him. Meanwhile there were frantic calls from the morning team (who were still battling at the fire site) that they needed water to drink very badly. In utter helplessness we tried all possible ways to reach the jeep by calling the checkpost, speaking to the writer there etc, but we were not able to reach him.
It was 5 PM. I gulped. After such exhaustion, I did not want to spend the night in the open. One, we did not have any protection in the form of a department guard or officer. Two, we did not know where the fire would sweep next, and we did not wish to get caught in a sea of fire.
We decided to find a tree where we would place ourselves and spend the night there in case the jeep failed to pick us up. We soon found a tree and Praveen M and me climbed on it. Praveen B went around to look for another tree. In 10 min he gave a shout from somewhere down the track. Getting down, we squinted, and found about 6 to 8 people walking towards us. Running, we reached them, and realized they were a group of watchers and guards who had just returned from a place after putting out the fire and were now walking towards a vehicle parked about 2 km downhill through the forest. This vehicle would take them to another spot where there was a fire currently raging. We accompanied them through the forest.
One thing is for sure. When one is walking in a forest, however tired one is, there is no scope for dropping guard even a bit. So keeping our eyes and ears open, we followed the troupe. We lost the way once, but were able to get back on track, and after walking for about 20-30 min, we saw the vehicle, a grey Tata Sumo, parked on a forest path, having no way to go further.
Near the vehicle, one guard beckoned me and pointed at something. On the muddy track were the pugmarks of a large tiger. While on their way up, the guards and watchers had apparently heard a sambar alarm call a little to their right. Hurrying on, they had come across these pugmarks, evidently made minutes ago. The tiger had crossed the path just before they took the turn. I called Arun, who was now sitting in the vehicle with Mohith, and showed him the marks. He was thrilled. Meanwhile, I looked around for the legendary animal. No luck.
Once we hopped into the vehicle, it wound across forest paths, some of which were clearly out of bounds for a Tata Sumo filled with 12 people. But we moved on. It took us though dense and shady bamboo clumps, filled with inches thick layer of leaves, and I could so clearly imagine a herd of elephants playing in the shade or a tiger bending down and drinking from the spring of water.
It took us down the mountains and onto the plains, and I realised we would soon come to the gate of Gopaalaswaamy Betta checkpost. A kilometer behind the gate, the tyre burst.
We all got down to check at the damage done. As I turned around to go the door of the vehicle, I cursed under my breath. Right in front of us, in 50 or so meters inside the bushy vegetation, there was a roaring fire!
Apparently the vehicle was about to stop so that the guards come combat the fire, when the tyre gave in. Uttrerly exhausted, Praveen M, Arun and me flopped down on the ground but Praveen B said he would go and fight the fire. Further looking down the road, another white Tata Sumo arrived and out landed the RFO (Range Forest Office) of the forest range.
In India, it is unusual to find a responsible governement officer. Maybe it was the sight of him, or the determination of Praveen B to do as much as he could to combat the fire, which prompted me to persuade my dead tired legs to carry me to the fire. Taking a few branches from a 70-odd-year-old villager hired to put out the fire, Mahajan and me beat the death out of the fire wherever we could reach it. With so many people, the fire was controlled in about 10-15 minutes.
The RFO thanked us profusely for our part in the day’s work. Praveen said it was the fundamental duty of a citizen. I merely watched like a zombie unable to think much. A surprised peacock took off from close to where we were standing and flew for a few hundred meters and landed like, In Praveen M’s words, an aeroplane. It was a beautiful sight. And it did the trick of bringing life back to my legs.
Praying that we don’t encounter any other fires, we reached the checkpost of GS Betta. Some tourists were heckling the local guards to let them pass through the gate and into the forest, even though the gates closed at 5 PM daily as scheduled. After speaking to them in soft, medium, and finally hard tones, the tourists resentfully left, without doubt calling us a few names of animals we already seen through the day.
From there, we went to the Bandipur entrance checkpost in the Sumo, stopping for diesel in a village along the way. I found myself singing a few songs, accompanied by the exhausted guards and watchers. They were surprised to see that a “Software man” from Bangalore actually knew old Kannada songs.
It was already dark when we reached the checkpost. I met the CWS research leads and assistants, a few of them my friends, and we exchanged the day’s happenings. They were lucky enough to have spotted Dhole (Wild Dog) hunt and leopard during the day. CWS is one of the, if not the most, critical organization working in the field of Wildlife Conservation today in Karnataka and other places. Vanya, in fact is the result of the outreach activities of CWS.
Not wasting much time, we bade goodbye to the wonderful place and started towards Bangalore. A few stops along the way for dinner and coffee, and my incessant loud talk to keep the driver Mahajan awake, we reached Bangalore at around 3 AM.
As soon as switched off the lights in my room and closed my eyes, I saw a blazing inferno in front of my eyes. I messaged others to ask if they were seeing it too. A few replied in positive. I slept hoping maybe it was normal.
In this post I have only talked about my experiences without putting much stress on many factors like the causes, effects, or best measures taken to control forest fires etc.
However, there are many questions that arise out of this experience. A few of them would be:
1.Are we equipped enough to handle a major disaster like a blazing fire in our protected areas?
2.How much funds does the government allocate to combat fire?
3.There are supposed to be fire watchers employed during the ciritcal time of peak summer. Where were they when the fire happened?
4.What more can we, the people do to prevent the ill effects of natural disasters like this?
5.It is known that it is the people who set fire in most cases of forest fires in India. Do we need more stringent punishment and measures to control people’s entry into the protected areas?
