Thiruvananthapuram: Major wildfires have been raging in the grasslands on the hills near Mananthavady in Wayanad district of Kerala for the past three days.
Forest officials said nearly 10 hectares of grassland in the inner forest were destroyed by fire and efforts are on to protect the forests close by.
Forest officials suspect arson as the grass in these regions are still green and do not catch fire in February. Sporadic fires are noticed only in May during peak summer.
VIDEO CREDIT: South First
In a video message to TV channels, North Wayanad Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Martin Lowell expressed suspicion over the incident, stating that the fire did not appear to be natural.
He felt that someone might have deliberately set the grass on fire, as the incidents occurred in grassland areas within the inner forest, where such fires would not typically occur naturally.
This has led the Forest Department to suspect that it was not a "natural occurrence".
