A DEVASTATING fire in a section of the Sundarbans damaged plants on around 1.66 acres of forestland on Monday raising doubts about the cause of the blaze at the World’s Largest Mangrove and UNESCO heritage zone. It is the third time such fires occurred in the past four years. The authority concerned claimed the fire might have originated from a heat wave or burning butts of cigarettes, earthen ovens and such other objects used by woodcutters or honey collectors. A probe committee formed but failed to instantly explore the reason.
The mangrove forest is decaying day by day due to relentless but illegal deforestation by local population. As the forest is shrinking valuable animal species are also disappearing or becoming smaller in number. In such situation any devastating fire appears to be suicidal to preserve the mangrove forest which man can’t be able to build again. What is frightening is that the fire will not only make animals life unsafe, the break down of natural tranquility will cause fish population in the river and other animal on the land to live in panic in their habitat. There is a growing fear if the situation becomes unsafe in the Bangladesh side of the forest, rare animal species may migrate to the Indian side of the forest. We must say this is sheer indifference and callousness of the government and the authorities concerned to understand what the country may loss if animals being faced by existential threats in the hitherto protected abode desert the Sundarbans
The UN-sponsored study points out that large areas of the Sundarbans may be severely affected as early as 2020 because of growing human infiltration pushing the forest towards destruction. Most worryingly, the disappearance of the largest carbon sink in the region would increase global warming and ultimately contribute to change the climate of South-East Asia. Frequent sinking of cargo vassals in Sundarbans rivers and the government indifference to save the water routes is also pushing the forest to the brink. The Rampal Power Plant outside the forest zone is equally threatening to the existence of the forest.
There is a growing fear that vested interest groups from home and abroad may be at work to destroy the forest and the fire may not be an exception in that case to achieve their goal. What many believe is that the formation of probe committee is not just enough, the mystery behind the fire need to be adequately unearthed to expose the forces working to destroy the forest. If needed the forest must be sealed to intruders but it can’t be allowed to be burned to make room for commercial activities of some people trying to make it an industrial zone.
