The Governor of Uttarakhand, Krishan Kant Paul has directed senior officials to continue action on a war-footing to bring the forest fires under control. The State Government has claimed that efforts to bring forest fires under control have succeeded in reducing the number of forest fire incidents with about 40 active fires being reported across the State on Monday. The situation is under control now though fire fighting efforts will continue, said additional chief secretary S Ramaswamy on Monday.
In addition to holding meetings with officials concerned to review the situation, the State governor has also remained in touch with all the district magistrates issuing necessary instructions by phone to tackle the situation. Paul has also directed the State Additional Chief Secretary S Ramaswamy to hold regular media briefings on a daily basis at the secretariat in order to inform the media about the current status of forest fires.
As directed by the Governor, Ramaswamy addressed the media here on Monday regarding the present status of forest fires. He stated that compared to the situation on Sunday, the number of active fires has been reduced considerably. The number of active fires which was 73 on Sunday, had dropped down to 40 on Monday.
Ramaswamy informed that on Monday, a total of 271 forest fire incidents had been reported from different parts of the State. Of these forest fires, the authorities have brought 231 forest fires under control with the involvement of more than 10,000 personnel from various departments being deployed for fire fighting.
He said, “This time, the number of forest fire watchers has been increased from 3,000 to 6,000. This has already started showing results as seen in the reduction in number of active forest fires. Now, compared to the earlier situation, success is being achieved sooner with forest fires being brought under control.”
Regarding the causes of forest fires, Ramaswamy informed that a total of 46 cases regarding intentional setting up of fires have been registered in the State with a first information report being lodged in one of these cases. With an FIR being lodged in one of the cases, in the remaining 45 reported incidents cases have been registered under the Forest Act.
He further informed that three persons- two from Nainital and one from Pithoragarh- had also been arrested for intentionally setting fires.
On Monday too, the Indian Air Force Mi17 helicopters continued sorties as part of the fire fighting efforts with five sorties being conducted from Nainital and three being conducted from Pauri. The helicopters are being used to release water on fires to bring them under control.
When asked about the number of casualties due to forest fires being reported from across Uttarakhand, Ramaswamy said that officially three human fatalities had been reported while 14 persons were reportedly injured due to forest fires so far.
A total of seven domesticated animals have also died from forest fires so far. Since the start of the forest fire season which lasts from February 15 to June 15, the total number of forest fire incidents reported so far is 1317 while about 2876 hectare area being affected by forest fires.
When asked about absence of any data on the wildlife fatalities, the additional chief secretary said that the first priority is to extinguish the conflagration after which the damage will be calculated.