With temperature surging up, increasing cases of wildfire are being reported from different parts of the mountainous State - something that exposes the State Forest department’s ill-preparedness to contain the blaze. Further, the failure of forest officials concerned of the Champawat district to take action against the suspects who were allegedly igniting forest fire has become too glaring to be ignored.
Taking a serious note of failure of the forest officials in taking action against those who are behind the wildfire in the district, Deependra Kumar Chaudhary, District Magistrate, Champawat, has asked for necessary action to be taken against those who are igniting the wildfire. People here are aggrieved over the forest officials not even taking the pains to identify the persons responsible for such blazes, said the DM.
This is the high time that the forest officials put in place necessary fire fighting mechanism and take necessary steps against the miscreants who are intentionally triggering the blazes, said officials. However, forest officials claim to have set up as many as 53 crew stations in different parts of Champawat. Out of these 53 crew stations, four have been set up in lohaghat while eight have been set up in Champawat region. Three crew stations in Kalikumaon, 10 in Bhingrada, eight in Devidhura, three in Dogaari and 17 in Boom forest range have also been set up to deal with wildfire in the district during the summer season.
Each of these crew stations is being manned by five forest personnel, added the officials. Side by side, seven watch towers have also been set up at different locations across the Champawat district to keep vigil on the wildfire related incidents. Since not just the forests but the wildlife and environment suffer huge losses due to raging forest fire Champawat district administration has appealed to the people to cooperate with it to contain it. The officials stressed on raising awareness among the people to stop the blaze from damaging forests.