Persons engaged in fire line works in Sirumugai forest range of the Coimbatore Forest Division.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The Forest Department has created 497 km of fire lines in the Coimbatore Forest Division ahead of the summer season.
Workers engaged by the Department cleared dry leaves, grasses and thickets along narrow strips and carried out controlled burning. These narrow strips, created along forest boundaries and within larger forest areas, will prevent the spread of fire.
District Forest Officer N. Jayaraj said fire line works have been completed in all the seven forest ranges in the division.
“A forest fire awareness meeting and a drill were conducted for the staff on Wednesday. Awareness programmes are being conducted in villages bordering forest boundaries through schemes under the Tamil Nadu Innovation Initiative and Project Elephant,” he said.
Coimbatore Forest Division is spread across 694 sq.km, surrounded by Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve in the north, Palakkad Division in the south, and Mannarakad and Nilgiris divisions in the west. The seven ranges in the division, namely Madukarai, Boluvampatti, Coimbatore, Periyanaickenpalayam, Karamadai, Mettupalayam and Sirumugai, share a total of 320-km-long boundary with human habitations.
Mr. Jayaraj said the artificial intelligence-based surveillance system, with its control room on district forest office premises, will also be helpful in detecting forest fires during day and night. Fire surveillance is made through three tower-mounted AI-based cameras installed near Marudhamalai, near Ponnuthu Amman temple and near the Ulagambikai Amman temple in Madukkarai forest range.
The division witnessed a major fire in April 2023 when 200 hectares of forest in Bolampatti block II reserve forest of the Madukkarai range was affected in a fire that lasted for over a week. While 2024 was largely incident-free, a fire was reported at Perumalmudi near the Tamil Nadu – Kerala border in the Coimbatore forest range in February 2025. The Department had established the District Forest Fire Control Centre for the division after the fire in Madukkarai range in 2023.
Modern fire-fighting vehicles in pipeline
Sources with the Department said that Coimbatore division is expected to get two modern modified fire-fighting vehicles soon. A total of 34 such vehicles are being readied for various forest divisions across the State for fire-fighting. These all-wheel-drive vehicles suited for rough terrains will have facilities such as water tankers, generators and solar power.
Published – February 05, 2026 08:48 pm IST
