The Pantanal, a vast tropical wetland straddling Brazil’s border with Bolivia and Paraguay, is currently suffering its worst fires in more than two decades, with nearly 12% of its vegetation reportedly already lost.??
?The Pantanal, whose name is derived from the Portuguese word for 'swamp', sprawls across more than 150,000 sq km.
The region is a vast flood plain that normally fills with water during the rainy season, roughly from November to March. But the floods were lower than normal this year and a subsequent drought has left the area dangerously susceptible to fire.??
According to Reuters, in?Brazil’s Pantanal, the vegetation compacted under the marshy floodwater during the wet season dries out as ponds and lagoons evaporate, leaving flammable deposits underground that can continue to smoulder long after visible flames die down.
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Firefighters across Brazil are battling raging towers of flames from the Amazon rainforest to the Cerrado savannah, but the fires beneath their feet are a particular challenge in the Pantanal.?
"The only way to combat an underground fire is to dig a trench around it," said state firefighter Lieutenant Isaac Wihby. Reports state that the fires here are the worst in 15 years.?
So far this month, the Pantanal, has recorded 4,677 'hot spots' in the worst rash of fires since August 2005, according to Brazil’s space research agency, Inpe.??
The flames threaten the region's biodiversity, rich with tapirs, pumas, capybaras and the world's most dense population of jaguars.
Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said it spotted more than 3,100 fires in the first two weeks of August, five times as many as in the same period last year.?
Experts blame the fires, in part, to higher than average temperatures and below average rainfall since mid-July.?
Hundreds of firefighters, environmental workers, park rangers and soldiers have been working 24 hours a day for weeks, attempting to extinguish flames that have destroyed thousands of square kilometers of the Pantanal, reports Reuters.?
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With temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), one fire this week was unstoppable as strong winds pushed it across multiple firebreaks, burning through twisted branches and dry leaves through the day and into the night.
Firefighters battling the fire through the night have to be constantly vigilant and look out for poisonous snakes and jaguars fleeing the fire.?
All Inputs:?Reuters