Bandipur forest fire still raging on: Officials

 Thousands of acres of land in the Bandipur tiger reserve were gutted in a fire over the last four days, creating fear about the safety of wild animals, forest officials said Sunday.

Foresters, along with hundreds of volunteers, made a vain bid to douse the fire that had spread to dangerous proportions, the officials said."The grassland around Mangala have burned a lot and the flames have been seen spreading towards Gopalaswamy Hill in the last two or three days," they said. The problem is that there has been no fire in the area over the last four-five years and the grass had grown to a height of four-five feet, principal chief conservator of forest Punati Sridhar told reporters.

A stretch of eight kilometres of forest from Varekatte to Gopalaswamy Hill has been reduced to ashes while reports said the fire has spread to Chartalakore Hill, Dummana Hill and Gouri Kallu Hill.Meanwhile Karnataka Chief minister H D Kumaraswamy tweeted: "We are closely monitoring the forest fire in Bandipur."

The forest minister is overseeing preventive action and the forest officials and fire service personnel are trying to contain the fire, he said adding that he has instructed officials to also take preventive measures.