Human mischief:
Although real reason behind this fire accident is yet to be ascertained, yet it is suspected that some miscreants were behind it. As per localites, the fire seemed to have emerged from four to five places, which hints at human involvement. A group of youth are said to have organised a picnic in the area. The fire mishap may have occurred because of their callousness. Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Puri also suspected this fire accident to be the handwork of some miscreants.
Doused:
Receiving information about this forest fire, fire brigade as well as forest department officials rushed to the spot to douse the fire. Local villagers also came out to help. The fire could be restrained. But several valuable trees had been gutted by then. But no deer or other animals were hurt in the fire.
Balukhand Wildlife Sanctuary is located along the coast of Bay of Bengal between Puri and Konark. It was designated in 1984. This sanctuary with large number of casuarina and cashew nut trees is home of variety of deer. Other animals found in the sanctuary are monkey, squirrel, jungle cat, hyena, jackal, mongoose and variety of birds and reptiles.
