Around 2.5k trees burned in Bopdev Ghat; Forest department complaints to police

A massive fire that consumed over 4,000 acres of forest land on Bopdev Ghat near the Kanifnath temple in Holkarwadi on Monday night resulted in the destruction of at least 2,500 trees.

The vast area is partially privately owned, and the government owns about 3–4 hectares of land where the forest department’s social forestry division has planted many trees.

About 11 p.m. on Monday, residents of the surrounding areas reported seeing massive flames on the hilltop near Holkarwadi. The flames quickly spread to three stretches of the hills, and the residents informed the forest department about the fire.

Following the alert, a group of social forestry wing officers arrived at the scene and began extinguishing the fire with readily available tools and natural resources. One of the firefighters stated that this continued for five hours, ending at four in the morning on Tuesday.

The locals referred to the fire as one of the deadliest ones they had seen in the area recently. According to a resident, he discovered the fire at 11 p.m. and promptly posted a notice on all social media networks. The fire quickly spread and consumed the whole hill. He looked at it and felt his heart sink. He couldn’t help but wonder how it would affect the people who lived in the nearby housing societies and forests.

Forest department officials believed the fire was intentionally started. The department has requested an investigation into a police complaint.

Many of our officers were struggling to breathe due to the challenging nature of the fire, according to a forest officer. Even though they lack the manpower to put out such large fires, they made an effort. He makes a plea to the public to volunteer with them in the event of one of these fires. Due to their limited authority, the social forestry wing was forced to request that the police investigate the situation.

In order to make up for the trees lost in the Monday night fire, plantation drives will be conducted after forest department officials said they would begin irrigating and replenishing the soil on the affected government land. Additionally, private landowners have been notified of the fire.