This story is from April 10, 2019

Now, Nasa satellites monitoring Pilibhit Tiger Reserve for forest fires

Now, Nasa satellites monitoring Pilibhit Tiger Reserve for forest fires
The early detection of fire will make forest officials act promptly to contain it, says PTR deputy director
PILIBHIT: With rising mercury and dry weather making forests highly susceptible to fire, two Nasa-monitored forest fire alert satellites have been deployed to keep a tab on the forest area of the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve for any sort of fire and alert PTR officials for swift action.
Talking to TOI over phone, joint director of Dehradun-based Forest Survey of India (FSI) Sushant Sharma said the satellites — commanded by the US-based National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — will send fire sensing data to the Indian Space Research Organisation, which Isro would share with FSI.
“The FSI will then send fire alerts to respective forest regions in the country, including PTR.”
The satellites will send fire alerts along with the GPS location — containing exact longitude and latitude — of the spot and pictures to the FSI command office, which will flash alerts on the mobile phones of PTR officials concerned and field forest force.
In order to make the system functional, a digital map of PTR was uploaded on FSI website and the names and mobile numbers of the PTR officials concerned, who will receive alerts, were added to the system.
Adarsh Kumar, deputy director, PTR, said, “The early detection of fire will make forest officials act promptly to contain it.”
Asked why PTR delayed the adoption of the technology, Kumar said the digital map of PTR was not available earlier.
Kumar told TOI that “of the two satellites, one is equipped with high resolution camera that can sense even small fires, while the other is capable of detecting only big fires”.
Divulging details of the measures taken on ground zero in PTR to deal with forest fire, Kumar said, As many as 20 fire lines to stop the spread of fire have been set up in each of the 52 forest beats in all five forest ranges. “Besides, we have deployed fire watchers in 40 forest beats. An additional fire tender has also been arranged, and a 500-meter-long pipe was connected to nearby waterbody, enabling the fire tender to fill water.

In addition, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is likely to provide a newly developed and “effective” leaf blower machine to control forest fire. The leaf blower comes with a capacity to blow away heaps of dry leaves up to a distance of 10 metres.
“Once the leaves are blown, the fire can be prevented from spreading. We will get five leaf blower machines, which have been successfully tested at PTR,” said Kumar.
“In addition, we have provided 30 especially designed fire-fighting kits to field forest force. The kit includes fire proof shoes, gloves, body guard, face and nose masks to protect the fire fighters from heat and asphyxiation,” added Kumar.
author
About the Author
Keshav Agarwal

Keshav Agarwal is a media person working with TOI at Pilibhit since June, 2014. He files news stories on various issues, esp forest & wildlife, environment, sugarcane farming and the sugar industry in India.

End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA