While the rest of the world was busy celebrating World Forest Day last week, the Yeoor forest was struggling to survive its longest spate of forest fires, claimed by locals as a sabotage. The fire raged on for two days, leaving neighbouring Thane under a spell of dense smoke. Mumbai's green lung, the Sanjay Gandhi National Park is in the news again for the consecutive forest fires in the Yeoor hills and forest. And things just don't seem to get better for the region. A little over a month ago, we reported the government's nod to a high-speed freight train corridor between Delhi and Mumbai which will run through the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and now, the consecutive fires in the forest are providing a glimpse of just how grim the situation is going to be for Mumbai if the forest is not taken care of.

To make matters worse, the water seems to be gone even before summer months

14 of the 46 ponds in the Yeoor hill range have already dried up forcing the residents of the neighbouring regions, who are dependant on them for water, to ration their limited source. The drastic drop in the water table has baffled forest officials who have been making several efforts to protect the water bodies using de-silting and moss straining techniques.

"While just a little fewer than 400 birds and animals were spotted in the last 24-hour census last year, the range is bound to have much more fauna. We have 46 watering holes for this variety of species across Yeoor, Nagla, Chane and Ghodbundar blocks in the forest. Of these 26 are perennial and the other 20 tend to have low water content towards the height of summer in the months of April and May. This year, 14 watering holes have already dried up, and we are trying our best to ensure that the others last at least till monsoon. There is also a river in Chena block that the animals can go to alternately," Sanjay Waghmode, Yeoor forest range officer, told The Times of India.