As Himachal Pradesh is reporting hundreds of wildfire incidents this year, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said Monday the state government is contemplating to form a dedicated disaster response battalion especially trained and equipped to deal with forest fire incidents.
The state has reported 1318 fire incidents this year so far, affecting 12,718 hectares of land including 2,789 hectares of plantation area, causing a preliminary financial loss of Rs 4.61 crore. The chief minister expressed serious concern over these incidents and directed the forest department to take concerted efforts to address the issue.
"To mitigate these losses, the state government is contemplating to form a dedicated battalion of NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) especially equipped and trained for fire fighting to reduce the losses to the forest area," a statement issued by the state government said.
Presiding over a meeting of the forest department here, the chief minister said 374 forest beats are highly sensitive for wildfire incidents and called for strengthening the fire-tackling services in these areas. He also instructed the department to initiate long-term measures along with executing immediate initiatives to curb the problem and stressed on the people's participation in these efforts.
Sukhu emphasised on diversifying the conifer plant regions to help retain moisture and reduce the number of fire incidents. He also directed the forest department to get a study conducted from a government agency to look into the causes of fire incidents and recommend necessary action.
