Mysuru
A forest watcher died on Monday night while extinguishing fire at Telangara in Yallapura forest range of Uttara Kannada district, officials said.
According to forest officers, the deceased, identified as Juja Siddhi (58), was working as daily wage worker at a sugarcane plantation of the department in Idagundi range forest.
At 7 pm on Monday, villagers alerted Juja Siddhi that a fire broke out in Telangara reserve forest. Juja went to the forest to douse the fire, and since it was dark, he could not notice the high-tension electric live wire that had fallen on the ground. He accidentally touched the live wire and was electrocuted, forest officials said.
“The Telangara reserve forest has an area of more than 987 hectares. As it is under the evergreen criteria, there is no possibility of forest fire. It is sad that we lost an honest worker,” Yellapura assistant conservator of forests Hemavathi Bhat said.
Bhat said that since it is an evergreen forest, the fire could not spread easily and only a few square meters of the forest was gutted in the fire. “The fire broke out due to broken high-tension wire. But Juja did not see the live wire at night and it resulted in his death,” she said.
This is second such incident in the state in which a forest personnel died while dousing fire. On February 18, a forest guard, Sundaresh, who was injured in a forest fire near Kaadumane in Manibhikthi reserve forest in the Western Ghats in Sakleshpur taluk of Hassan district, died at a private hospital in Bengaluru after battling for his life for three days.
Four people, including Sundaresh, deputy range forest officer Manjunath, watchers Thungesh and Mahesh, had suffered burn injuries when they had gone to extinguish the fire near Kaadumane.
With no road connectivity, Sundresh and Manjunath who had suffered 80% burn injuries were shifted using a makeshift cloth stretcher. They were shifted to St Johns Hospital in Bengaluru in zero traffic after being providing first-aid at the government hospital in Sakleshpur.
Some forest staff alleged that though they are urging the government to provide them with facilities and modern equipment to protect forests from fire, the government has not paid heed to their demands.