Frequent fires devastate cashew farms at Bicholim

Panaji: Just two days after a massive blaze burnt a large cashew plantation at Mayem, a fire destroyed a cashew plantation at Bicholim’s Chikne village on Friday.
The plantation was jointly owned by four individuals and included mango, banana, and coconut crops.
“We received the call at 1:16pm informing us that a cashew plantation near Kudnem was on fire. Our team, led by leading firefighter M D Naik and a vehicle, responded,” said a fire department official with the Bicholim fire station
He added, “The plantation is large, and the owners say they lost at least Rs 2 lakh because of the fire”.
The fire and emergency service responders have not identified the actual cause of the fire, but with the state sizzling under heatwave conditions, firefighters said that friction, carelessly discarded cigarette buds, and embers from open kitchen fires can easily trigger a fire.
The owners of the plantations sufferred heavy losses. They have been identified as Suraj Ghadi, Ganesh Ghadi, Shripad Ghadi, and Ramakant Chiknekar.
“The plantation had cashew, mango, banana, and coconut, and we estimate that we managed to save about Rs 1 lakh,” said the firefighter.
It took firefighters nearly two hours to put out the fire and return to the Bicholim fire station. Firefighters were also called to put out a forest fire at Harvalem, Sanquelim.
A similar incident was reported at Verla, Canca where the cashew plantation went up in flames and firefighters from the Pilerne fire station were called to put out the forest fire.