bdnews24.com :
The fire in the Sundarbans is still raging despite efforts by fire fighters and forest workers to douse the flames.
Smoke was rising sporadically from almost eight acres of the world’s largest mangrove forest, said Bagerhat’s Morelganj Upazila Fire Station officer Md Ariful Haque, from the site, around noon on Thursday.
The fire began on Wednesday evening at ‘Poyshotti Chila’, a place near the Chadpai range of the forest’s eastern division. The forest division was not able to confirm how it started.
“We are pouring water on places where there is smoke. We are trying to
stop the blaze from breaching the fire line. But new places are being affected as flames are rising from below ground.”
But SMA Baki, a fire station official at East Sundarbans’ Dhanshagor, said one acre of the forest is under fire but is now under control. Firemen were trying to douse the rest of it.
The magnitude of the damage is not clear, he said. East Sundarban’s Divisional Forest Officer Amir Hossain Chowdhury said an acre of forest has been damaged. He said Gulishakhali, the affected area, is among those prone to wildfires that erupt in the forest’s east division of every year.
Forest workers set up a fire line on Wednesday night to limit the spread of the blaze, he said.
Fires break out in the low-lying regions of northern and north-eastern parts of Soronkhola and Chadpai Range because of the heat and strong winds during the end of spring and beginning of summer every year.
“Water collects in these low-lying regions during the rainy season and dries up in winter. Leaves fall on this water the whole year round to create a half-decomposed layer. Methane gas gets trapped in the layer of leaves when water evaporates during the dry season.”
