It was Saturday, March 4, that the first of the fires currently raging across forest patches in Goa's eastern hinterland were reported. Also, by the Forest Department's own admission, it was alerted of the Satrem-Sattari fire via the Forest Survey of India (FSI) default system's satellite-based warning system. Yet, it was not until Tuesday, March 7, a whole three days later, that the State Disaster Management Authority actually met at Morlem and the magnitude of the task at hand to fight the fires actually sunk in, losing precious and crucial time.
It was only then that the State administration reached out to the Indian Navy to help out with aerial surveying and fire-fighting.
To be fair, however, the forest department did mobilise its frontline men forming over a dozen teams comprising close to 150 men drawn from among its frontline staff -- RFOs, fire trekkers and labourers. But with access to the location of the fire impossible, there was very little that could be done from the ground to douse or even control it. Thus, the fire spread to the Chorla ghat, Pali and Charvane areas. And by Wednesday, more fires had broken out in Morlem and other areas. And another two days later, more fires were raging in Tambdi Surla and Bondla.
SDMA meets only
on March 7
The enormity of the raging and fast-spreading forest fires took its time to be fully comprehended by the State administration and it got escalated to the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), which has Chief Minister Pramod Sawant as Chairman, Revenue Minister Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate as vice-chairman and Chief Secretary Puneet Kumar Goel as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), only on Tuesday (March 7). It was only then that Sawant called for a meeting of the Authority at Morlem and the State administration simultaneously sent out the SOS to the Naval authorities for aerial assistance in fighting the wildfires. This was after it took an inexplicably long time for the powers that be, to conclude that conventional fire-fighting by the Fire and Emergency Services department and the other resources available in the State were inadequate to meet the challenge.
Navy, airforce
to the rescue
The Indian Navy, and later the Indian Air Force (IAF), joined in the efforts in containing the fires on the very day the administration reached out to them (March 7) and a Dornier was deployed to conduct a survey of the forest area engulfed in the fire.
The next day, fire-fighting equipment was requisitioned and brought in from the Kochi and Mumbai naval units and multiple sorties were conducted to fight the fire using Seaking aircraft.
It was on March 8 (Wednesday) that the naval helicopters sprayed 17 tonnes of water in Mhadei and Morlem, besides at a location close to the INS Hansa naval base in Cortalim. As many as 26 runs of spraying the water at the fires were carried out by picking up water from a nearby water body and releasing it on the fire-affected areas.
The IAF too pitched in with the deployment of its Mi-17 helicopters both for surveying as well as fire fighting operations.
Natural v/s man
made debate
For much of the early days of the ongoing forest fires disaster, there was something else raging other than the wildfires in the media coverage: the debate whether the fires owing to scorching, above-average temperatures reported over the last fortnight were natural or man-made.
Both the Forest Minister Vishwajit Rane and the Chief Minister have more than amply made it clear that these fires were ignited by people rather than having been started by natural causes or climate change.
Rane, who has used his handle on the micro-blogging site Twitter to release updates on the forest fires, has more than once stated that the fires are the handiwork of humans and warned of investigations to get to the culprits.
"We must protect our forests and there will be no compromise on it," Rane said.
Sawant on the other hand has revealed that the government is convinced that the fires have been started by miscreants.
"We have come to realise that manmade causes are responsible," the Chief Minister said, even as he expressed surprise why people living in those forest areas were lighting fires.
"People need to understand that it is not good to destroy the flora and fauna in the forests," he added.
Setting fires in the hills is not an uncommon practice and the authorities claim herdsmen, besides cashew plantation owners resort to it to cut costs and clear areas for the expansion of their holdings and grasslands for grazing.
Termed 'slash and burn technique' it is mostly used by many from the local populace to reduce debris and suppress growth under the cashew tree canopy.
Centre steps in: PMO,
MoEF&CC monitoring
With the wildfires raging continually for the eighth day, the Central government stepped in on Saturday claiming that the situation is being closely monitored by no less than the office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Rane revealed that both the PMO and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh have been updated with a detailed report of the ongoing forest fires and that the former is also monitoring the situation from here on.
The Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) meanwhile said on Saturday that it has set up a 24x7 control room to monitor the real-time alerts of the Forest Survey of India (FSI).
The MoEF&CC however revealed that there has not been any major damage reported till now and added that more than 750 people are deployed on the ground to attend to the fires. It also said that the long dry spell (almost no rains since mid-October, 2022), coupled with unprecedented high summer temperatures with low humidity has resulted in a conducive atmosphere for the fires.
Govt unprepared,
complicit: Oppn
Goa's Opposition parties have slammed the State government for being unprepared to manage the forest fires. It has also demanded a judicial inquiry into the causes of the disaster and has even alleged possible complicity of the government to support its "indiscriminate development" agenda.
Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao accused the "anti-environment BJP government" to be in super active mode and demanded a high-level inquiry headed by a retired High Court judge into all the fire incidents, terming them abnormal and suspicious.
Reports of a fire in every taluka of the State over the last weekend give scope to suspect foul play, Alemao said even as he alleged that the possibility of a systematic game plan to destroy forests cannot be ruled out.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas also raised the possibility of the complicity of the government in the ongoing forest fires.
Viegas also highlighted that it has exposed the disaster management agencies and their unpreparedness in handling fires.
“Are we prepared to fight fires of such magnitude? Was fire fighting part of the recent mock drill carried out by the disaster management agencies?” Viegas asked, urging the government to invest in logistics and resources to meet such fire emergencies.
If Alemao raised suspicion of the government's complicity owing to the real estate lobby, Viegas echoed the allegation arguing that it raises suspicions that the fire was ignited to destroy tiger habitat in the Mhadei wildlife sanctuary and frustrate the efforts to set up a tiger reserve.
