Bhubaneswar: The incidents of wildfire in Similipal National Park have been less this summer compared to last year due to AI-generated alerts and prompt response by Forest officials, said PCCF (Wildlife) Susanta Nanda on Thursday.
On Thursday, fire points have been reported from 5 places in the National Park. Till Wednesday, 209 fire points have been detected in Similipal in April, which is the lowest in the last five years, Nanda said.
“The forest fire incidents have been confined to fringe areas of the park with core and adjacent buffer areas remaining unaffected. Besides, no alert of a large fire point (4 km) has been issued till date. As a result, there has been no loss of wildlife and there was no threat to tiger population,” he said.
On the alert process, the PCCF said six AI systems with cameras capable of 360-degree surveillance have been installed on watch towers at different locations of the park. On getting an alert from the system, the Forest personnel rush to the affected spot with the help of GPS and douse the fire, he added.
“On the direction of the state government, the Forest officials are working in close coordination with the ODRAF and other units. Total 7 ODRAF teams apart from fire squads have been deployed in every forest division. The ODRAF personnel are experts in handling such situations and we are taking timely steps to prevent the fire from spreading. Besides, awareness among people and creation of fireline have also brought down fire incidents,” said Nanda.
With AI systems proving successful in controlling forest fire, particularly in summer, more such cameras will be installed at vulnerable points. AI cameras will also to be installed in Satkosia Wildlife Sanctuary and vulnerable areas of the forests of Rayagada and Koraput, the PCCF said.
