The hot and dry season is starting now in Tiruvannamalai. So the Forest Department has, accordingly, stepped up their closure of the Inner Path.
A few days ago in the local Tamil newspaper they published an announcement about this, saying that they had closed 30 different access points to the Inner Path. A cou0ple of days later I saw this new sign on Pradakshina Road:
This is the first sign posting the closure.
Last year’s issue was fires, the worst fire season in years. There were five big fires. He are a couple of articles I wrote about fires:
Arunachala in Flames
More Fires on Arunachala
This article shows the recovery in one of the fire areas a few months after the burn. It also has a map that shows the extensive burn area of four of the five big fires last year.
After the Fire on Arunachala
Govind, of the Forest Way leads the fire suppression team. He said that fighting the five fires was like running five marathons in a row. Fighting these fires up on the side of Arunachala take an enormous effort.
We will see what it is like this year. I hope the fire prevention effort is successful. Let this also be a reminder to each of you to always be ‘fire safe’ when visiting Arunachala. Do not smoke, or even light camphor or oil deepam lights near the mountain.
