This is no children's game that I'm talking about, but one in a series of mountain fires we've been witnessing throughout the past month and a half. Only, this time (and another one last weekend) it was specifically meant to burn down our farm.
The miscreants were smart, as they have been on earlier occasions: set fire on a Saturday evening or a Sunday morning, the time that is most likely that people are not around in farms. The weather, too, couldn't have been better suited: the entire Palani hills have been reeling under extreme hot weather, causing most of the wild brush to become dry; heavy winds to keep the fire going; no water in any of the streams; little stored water that could be used to douse it. And also, this came right on the heels of propbably hundreds of wild brush fires in the Palani hills in just the past month, leaving the few forest guards either weary or uninterested.
Here's a first hand view of this particular fire that was set at about 11.00 am on easter Sunday, the 27th March, 2016. The fire raged for about 6 hours, burning up dry grass, cutting through not only government poromboke land but patta lands too, and finally running out of breath more than a kilometer from where it started.
Watch the video of the fire burning up one end of our farm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oUnTm8fgB4
My wife and I, along with a friend who was visiting us, had just started on a small walk around our farm when we saw the smoke. Quickly gathering a couple of people from the neighbouring farm, we first thought we could beat it out. When we realized it was too big for us to even go near, we hoped that the four-foot clearning we made around our farm would stop it. But no, even the clearing could not do much. The fish-net fencing we had put up to keep away small animals melted like wax, and the fire just breezed its way into large portions of our farm land, burning up coffee and pepper plants, along with the dried brush and the dry leaves on the ground. We could only watch in disbelief and helplessness as it worked its way down a hill, across a dry stream and up the next hill.
Watch a clip of the fire burning away after moving down the adjacent hill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4f5v_b6rdk
Calls to the forest guard only evoked a weak "how-can-we-help-a-forest-fire" response. Complaints to the forest checkpost the following day evoked an equally disinterested response. We will now have to take the time to make a formal complaint to the district forest officer and/or to the police since this was clearly the work of miscreants intent at harming us. If any of you reading this has any wisdom on how to take this up with the authorities, do write back, we'd be glad for any help.
The miscreants were smart, as they have been on earlier occasions: set fire on a Saturday evening or a Sunday morning, the time that is most likely that people are not around in farms. The weather, too, couldn't have been better suited: the entire Palani hills have been reeling under extreme hot weather, causing most of the wild brush to become dry; heavy winds to keep the fire going; no water in any of the streams; little stored water that could be used to douse it. And also, this came right on the heels of propbably hundreds of wild brush fires in the Palani hills in just the past month, leaving the few forest guards either weary or uninterested.
Here's a first hand view of this particular fire that was set at about 11.00 am on easter Sunday, the 27th March, 2016. The fire raged for about 6 hours, burning up dry grass, cutting through not only government poromboke land but patta lands too, and finally running out of breath more than a kilometer from where it started.
Watch the video of the fire burning up one end of our farm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oUnTm8fgB4
My wife and I, along with a friend who was visiting us, had just started on a small walk around our farm when we saw the smoke. Quickly gathering a couple of people from the neighbouring farm, we first thought we could beat it out. When we realized it was too big for us to even go near, we hoped that the four-foot clearning we made around our farm would stop it. But no, even the clearing could not do much. The fish-net fencing we had put up to keep away small animals melted like wax, and the fire just breezed its way into large portions of our farm land, burning up coffee and pepper plants, along with the dried brush and the dry leaves on the ground. We could only watch in disbelief and helplessness as it worked its way down a hill, across a dry stream and up the next hill.
Watch a clip of the fire burning away after moving down the adjacent hill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4f5v_b6rdk
Calls to the forest guard only evoked a weak "how-can-we-help-a-forest-fire" response. Complaints to the forest checkpost the following day evoked an equally disinterested response. We will now have to take the time to make a formal complaint to the district forest officer and/or to the police since this was clearly the work of miscreants intent at harming us. If any of you reading this has any wisdom on how to take this up with the authorities, do write back, we'd be glad for any help.
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