Forest department officials believe that the fires were started by people, possibly in retaliation against the forest department for their perceived lack of action after the killing of three persons by tigers in The Nilgiris over the last year.
Forest fires raging through Laos, Myanmar and Thailand have smothered large areas in dangerous smoke, leaving overstretched firefighters battling blazes and smog-choked communities looking to the skies for rain and their governments to fix a scourge that worsens each year. Dry season fires have brought a public health crisis to northern Thailand, including Chiang Mai, as well as much of Laos and eastern Myanmar, as parched bush provides tinderbox conditions for wildfires. Some fires are also due...
They identify multiple zones vulnerable to forest fires as temperatures cross 45° C in the summer months; creation of fire lines, removal of dry biomass, and deployment of fire watchers in sensitive beats have been taken up, says Madanapalle Forest Range Officer