Yelagiri Hills witness forest fire, two hectares of forest land destroyed

Forest officials doused the fire that destroyed at least two hectares of dried grasses in Ponneri reserve forest (RF) atop Yelagiri Hills in Tirupattur.

Forest officials said that the fire atop the hills was the first incident that occurred in Yelagiri Hills during summer this year, mainly due to a steady rise in day-time temperature in the region for the past few weeks. “The region, including the hills, remained dry since December 2025 due to poor monsoon. Moisture content in soil could have prevented such accidental forest fire,” K.R. Cholarajan, forest range officer (Tirupattur), told The Hindu.

It was around 8 a.m when residents noticed thick smoke atop the hillock. Before forest officials managed to reach the spot, a large tract of dried grass on the hills was destroyed by fire. The forest area comes under Tirupattur forest range. 

In Tirupattur and surrounding areas, daily temperature was recorded as between 35 degrees Celsius and 40 degrees celsius. At present, the district has around 17,000 hectares of forest land.

After a few hours of labour, forest officials doused the fire. They also checked for any death of wild species due to the fire. Following the incident, special teams have been formed for regular patrolling of vulnerable spots in the hills to prevent such accidents during summer.

As part of creating awareness, helpline numbers 9894020880 and 04179-220185 were also introduced by Tirupattur forest division for residents. . A centralised control room at the district headquarters has also been set up to monitor patrolling activities of forest teams in such vulnerable areas during summer.