During the brief duration before President’s rule was revived in Uttarakhand, the now former Forest minister Dinesh Agrawal chaired a meet with forest department officials on Friday to discuss the forest fire scenario of the State. Seeking details of forest fires, Agrawal issued standard order to officials directing them to draft an effective work plan to tackle forest fires.
Regarding the damage caused by forest fires in this season till date, the department officials informed that this year till April 21, forest fires caused the death of two women in the Mukhem range of Uttarkashi forest division during February; caused injury to one man in Nainital forest division on April 14 and resulted in the death of seven cattle in the Dhanpur range of Kedarnath wildlife sanctuary on April 16.
Officials said that during the period stated, forest fires have caused damage estimatedly amounting to about Rs 7,43,990. The officials further informed that the department is presently operating 1,166 crew stations across the state with five to seven personnel in each of the crew stations.
The department officials further informed that forest fires reported on the basis of satellite data provided by the Forest Survey of India are tackled with the help of local villagers. With the intention of further enhancing efforts against forest fires, the department has also made provision to ensure that forest fire information is communicated swiftly to the department official concerned. They further stated that the public and tourists were also being requested to report any forest fire to the department’s Van Mitra service by dialing 9208008000.