Local tribes set fire to trees to collect mahua flower
The Hindu
The minor 'forest fires' on the Andhra Pradesh-Chattisgarh border in Chintoor agency are ignited by the local tribes to collect mahua flowers, which is used to prepare a drink with addictive p
The minor 'forest fires' on the Andhra Pradesh-Chattisgarh border in Chintoor agency are ignited by the local tribes to collect mahua flowers, which is used to prepare a drink with addictive properties. Traditionally mahua flowers are collected from the ground in March-April when they automatically fall from the tree. In the summer months, the mahua trees shed leaves in the initial stage, which are set on fire by these tribals to clear the ground for picking up the flowers shed by the tree in the next stage. On March 24, a forest fire spread across a few hundred meters in a 30-kilometre forest stretch dotted with mahua trees was recorded by the local communities between Chintoor and Edugurallapalli. Traditionally, the local tribals have been setting fire to the leaves after they drop from the Mahua tree to collect the Mahua flowers.![](/newspic/picid-1269750-20250217064624.jpg)
When fed into Latin, pusilla comes out denoting “very small”. The Baillon’s crake can be missed in the field, when it is at a distance, as the magnification of the human eye is woefully short of what it takes to pick up this tiny creature. The other factor is the Baillon’s crake’s predisposition to present less of itself: it moves about furtively and slides into the reeds at the slightest suspicion of being noticed. But if you are keen on observing the Baillon’s crake or the ruddy breasted crake in the field, in Chennai, this would be the best time to put in efforts towards that end. These birds live amidst reeds, the bulrushes, which are likely to lose their density now as they would shrivel and go brown, leaving wide gaps, thereby reducing the cover for these tiddly birds to stay inscrutable.