State Forest Department to Close Major Wildlife Parks and Sanctuaries to Risk down Incidents of Forest Fires

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  Kerala has numerous wildlife parks and sanctuaries and all of them are well
endowed with rich flora and fauna. Looking at the green cover and the presence of diverse flora and fauna, tourists, wildlife lover and photographers from across the world visit this southern state of Kerala. 

But now in order to tackle the recent forest fire which according to the department is caused by the human activities, is closing down few of its major wildlife sanctuaries to tackle this risk.  

The increasing forest fires in the last few weeks has brought a great threat to the wildlife of Kerala and so the forest department is planning to close down some of its major wildlife sanctuaries of the state. Wayanad, Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuaries and Eravikulam National Park will be shot down from March 1 to April 20^th.

Eravikulam National Park the major attraction of Munnar is closing down as according to officials it is the mating season for the NIlgiri Tahr, which is also considered to be an endangered species. Wayanad Divisional Forest Officer Dhanesh Kumar said “ We receive around 1,000 tourist every day in Wayanad and it is one of the major tourist hotspot for domestic and international tourists. 

In the last two weeks, there have been seven forest fire incidents in the Wayanad sanctuary and the officials suspects all are due to tourism activities. "Unscrupulous elements burn dry woods and try to clear areas close to forests. Some tourists without thinking anything throw the lighted cigarettes into the dry twigs which also cause forest fire," a senior forest official said.

Last year the state received good south-west monsoon but there was shortage of northeast monsoon, which has resulted in drying up of many small water holes of the forest, Officials pointed out. 

“Due to the presence of deciduous forests and grass lands, it is very much essential to receive occasional waterfall throughout the year, which helps to maintain the greenery of the sanctuary and park”, the official said. 

The wild animals present inside the forest largely depends upon the abundant vegetation for food and water. “This is the reason why there is large number of invasion of wildlife animals into the buffer zones and agricultural farms in the border areas of the forests. 

Monkeys, deer and elephants are very important as they totally depends on the available fodder in an around,” an official said.

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