Forest fire in city: Hand of land-sharks suspected

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The city residents in the south of Kanakapura road were witness to a forest fire on Wednesday night. The forest officials received an anonymous call from the residents living in the Adarsha layout, 4th block area under the jurisdiction of Bangalore Development Authority informing them about the fire. The fire was noticed at 10 pm on Wednesday night.

Deputy Range Forest Officer Cum Surveyor, Raju A L was the first to respond and undertook an operation to douse the fire. "We could not trace the people responsible for starting the fire. But the investigation is underway and all the forest officials have been alerted, " said the forest officer. He said, forest officials began extinguishing the fire upon reaching the spot.

Speaking to News Trail, one of the forest officials engaged in the operation Bharav said, "Some miscreants have torched the restricted forest areas. These activities have increased over the past many years. Some do it to encroach on forest lands. Due to this a lot of trees have been burnt.