Fire breaks out in 3 areas of SGNP
A major fire broke out at Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) at three different locations late on Monday night, due to which a large portion of the forest was gutted. Although no casualty has been reported, trees and vegetation spread over 15 kilometres within the forest area is believed to have been burnt down.
According to the forest department officials, the fire erupted at Filmcity in Goregaon initially at around 10.30 pm on Monday. It was extinguished by 4.30 am on Tuesday. However, while the situation in Goregaon came under control, two other locations inside the park — Ravalpada and Chena bridge — reported a break out of fire at around 2 pm on Tuesday.
Forest officials reacted cautiously while talking about the cause of fire. “With the help of the fire department, we have been successful in controlling and dousing the fire. But there could be various reasons behind fire. We often witness such incidents when temperatures soar during summer. It could have been caused due to consistent fall of sunrays, friction between plants or even due to the friction caused due to animals running on slabs of stone in the forest or someone throwing a used cigarette,” said a senior forest official on condition of anonymity.
However, according to sources, there could be a possibility of some miscreants starting the fire so that the ongoing demolition of illegal slums in the forest is delayed. “Our demolition drive against the illegal structures on forest land is in progress and we suspect that some miscreants must have deliberately set the forest on fire so that the next demolition drive is cancelled,” said an official.
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