Forest catches fire, cause remains uncertain

No loss of life, property reported; forest dept to conduct survey to assess losses

HYDERABAD:

A part of Muhammad Khan forest caught fire on Thursday night, destroying mostly wild plantations, and around 50 mature trees, on a piece of land between seven to 10 acres. The forest, spread on 181 acres of land, is located in Kathri in the jurisdiction of Hatri police station.

District Forest Officer Rizwan Memon told The Express Tribune that fortunately no harm to life, or to the houses in the forest's vicinity, occurred in the incident. However, he stated that the exact amount of losses are yet to be assessed, because on Friday the burnt parts of the forest could not be visited due to the scorching heat and the freshly burnt hot ground.

He stated "there were between 40 to 50 mature trees which were burnt, but we will be able to come up with the correct figure once we survey the losses." The official expressed hope that their team would be able to conduct the assessment once the heat pervading the burnt ground settled. He said that the forest department had planted acacia, willow, albizia and similar saplings between 2019 to 2020, and added that most of the plants which were consumed by the fire were wild weeds.

Memon stated that the cause of the fire is to be investigated, but believed that an act of human ignorance, like throwing a burnt cigarette or a matchstick in the weeds, could have triggered the blaze.

The forest staff began to notice smoke around 7.30pm, and they reached the site by 8pm. Since the area happens to be an irrigated plantation, the availability of water helped the fire tenders of Rescue 1122 and Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) douse the blaze, regarding which Memon stated "thanks to the water availability, the fire tenders extinguished the blaze without any delay." A Rescue 1122 official apprised that the fire was put out completely around 11.30pm.