Fearing attacks on their cattle by tigers, two shepherds in the Bandipur reserve area confessed setting the forest on fire. The forest department has taken the two men into custody who sparked the blaze at the Bandipur National Park.
The accused identified as 70-year-old Hanumanthaiah and 60-year-old Gopaiah, had lit the fire on February 22, leading to large-scale fire, destroying thousands of acres of forest cover.
The Forest Department claimed that the two men have confessed in front of a Judicial Magistrate. They have been remanded to judicial custody.
The accused were presented before the Civil Court of Gundlupet at around 5:30 pm the same day. On Saturday, Punati Sridhar, Principal Conservator of Forests, said the culprits had been caught.
The fire which engulfed the Bandipur Tiger Reserve raged for five long days before it was finally put out on Tuesday, February 26. Officials estimated that around 500 hectares of land had been scorched and destroyed in the fire.
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Two helicopters from the Indian Air Force sprayed roughly 30,000 litres of water to fight the fire in the Gopalaswamy Betta range of the reserve. The fire also had significantly scorched the nearby ranges of Bandipur and Kundikere.
To avoid forest fires, the forest department has now deployed additional officers in the area with walkie-talkies, besides taking several other steps. The Bandipur Tiger reserve is now open to tourists. The reserve was only closed for a few hours on February 22
