PANAJI
Two days after a cashew plantation was destroyed in fire said to have been ignited reportedly by friction between power lines in the Mayem area causing huge losses, another similar incident occured in the Chikane area of Kudnem where a plantation jointly owned by four people got destroyed in fire.
On learning of the fire, villagers intimated the Bicholim fire station on Saturday afternoon and a team which rushed to the location managed to save crop worth around Rs 1 lakh. The area has a mixed plantation of cashew, mango, banana and coconut.
The crop that was in the orchard was burnt to ashes and the loss is estimated at around Rs 2 lakh.
The summer heat, which usually hits the State by mid-March this year came in early in the last week of February itself.
And, unlike the past several years, the Meteorological Department had issued a yellow temperature alert for 15 consecutive days this year.
According to fire-fighters at the scene, the intense heat may have created conducive conditions for the sparks to ignite the fire fuelled further by fallen dry leaves and bushes in the forest.
Firefighters believe something similar may have happened here as well.
According to another source, the Bicholim fire station also received more calls including one from Harvalem regarding a fire at Malrana which was doused.
