Smoke from Massive Fire Threatens to Suffocate Over 20 Tigers in India’s Reserve

A massive fire has been raging at a tiger reserve in India's western Rajasthan state for more than 24 hours now, emitting smoke in an area of more than 10 sq km - the size of roughly 1,800 football fields.

While it remains unknown how the fire started to spread in the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan's Alwar district - a home to more than 20 tigers - forest officials reported on Monday evening that authorities race to contain the fire in fear that it will suffocate the animals in the vicinity.

"Two Mi-17 V5 helicopters after the Alwar district administration sent an SOS to help control the fire which had spread over large areas in Sariska," the Two Indian Air Force (IAF) said in the Independent. "The IAF has deployed two Mi-17 V5 helicopters for Bambi bucket ops. The operations are ongoing."

The IAF helicopters got and sprayed hundreds of liters of water from the Siliserh lake, about 43km from the reserve, to the affected area as of Tuesday.

Tigers in the Indian Forests

According to recent estimates of the government of India, the tiger population in the country now stands at 2967 - 70% of the global tiger population.

"Tiger is an incredible part of the nature and the increased number of the big cats in India reflects equilibrium in the nature.", said the Union Environment Minister, Shri Prakash Javadekar at the release of the detailed report of Tiger Census on the eve of Global Tiger Day in New Delhi, 2020.

In 2021, India saw the highest toll of tiger death in a decade, the biggest cause of death being "natural causes" as per the latest data from National Tiger Conservation Authority. India's tiger conservation body said 126 of the endangered big cats died that year.

The Sariska fire that broke out at India's tiger reserve poses a threat to the territory 3 tigers and 2 cubs, including the tigress codenamed ST-17, the Hindustan Times reported.

Six villages on high alert

The Rajasthan forest department has put six villages on high alert as the fire grows in the over large areas in Sariska. Residents were also asked to be ready to vacate villages in short notice.

About 150 - 200 people, including forest staff, helped douse the fire-affected area. "The area under fire is at a height which is making it difficult to take any anti-fire equipment there. At present, effort is being made to douse fire manually and through water sprinkled by choppers," said district forest officer of Sariska Tiger Reserve, Sudharshan Sharma.

According to Sharma, the fire first broke out on Sunday evening in Baletha area in the dry grassland and bamboo shrubs and "went beyond the control of containment efforts". It spread to Rodkela, Narandi, Kalakadi, Katighati, and Naharsati areas, covering more than two of the nine zones of the reserve. Thereafter, they sought help from the army and air force.

Despite fears for the tiger's safety, officers said that in many cases, it has been observed that big animals like tigers tend to find a safe place in such circumstances.