The recent outbreak of diarrhoea and starvation deaths have overshadowed anotehr serious natural calamity recurring in the evergreen picturesque Battia Valley in Jamui district. Forests and other natural wealth are being consumed by fire. The worst is over but the fire continued to simmer, even after more than one and a half months when the hills from Gaganpur to Battia over a stretch of several kilometres in the valley first went up in flames.