Forest fire control measures

During fire season in summer every year, since 2005 we have been donating necessities vehicles like Jeep , Gypsy and Tata mobiles (sometimes including water tankers) in concerned forest ranges to help in patrolling fire lines inside forests and to carry forest personnel with their daily necessities in three Tiger reserves of Bandipur, Nagarholay and BRT. The following factors make fire-control work particularly difficult and dangerous:

• Excessive heat radiated by the fire (fires always occur during hot weather)
• Poor visibility (due to smoke and dust)
• Difficult terrain (fires always follow wind patterns and generally move uphill)
• Difficulty getting supplies to the fire-fighters (food, water, tools, fuel)
• Often obligatory to work at night (easiest time to “kill” the fire)
• Impossibility of outrunning a fire during strong winds (fires move faster than any person can run)
• Sudden changes in the wind direction, so that no one can exactly predict the spread of the fire-control.
• Stress and fatigue, causing people to make disastrous judgement errors, often with fatal results.