The potential for forest fires has heightened due to negligent rainfall during the winter season this year and past few months which has decreased the level of moisture on the ground. In order to further improve mitigation and forest-firefighting in the State, the Forest Department principal chief conservator of forests has appealed to the local residents and visiting tourists to inform the department through its 24-hour centralised cloud call centre service ‘Van Mitra’ in case they spot a forest fire.
In an official statement issued regarding the issue of forest fire, the State’s principal chief conservator of forests Rajendra Kumar said that the forest fire season has started from February 15.
There has been negligible rainfall during the winter season this year and during the past few months as a result of which the level of moisture in the land has dropped. This in turn is causing forest fires. The forest department is informed about forest fires through the satellite data provided by the Forest Survey of India based on which the forest fires are reported.
The department then takes the help of local residents to extinguish the forest fires reported. In order to further enhance efforts directed at forest fires, the department has also made a provision to ensure that the information related to forest fires reported by locals and visitors to the Van Mitra is communicated to the forest department official concerned.
The PCCF has requested local residents and tourists to access the Van Mitra service by dialing 9208008000 to report any case of forest fire that they spot. Forest fire information can be reported by the callers by pressing the number 1 after dialing the Van Mitra number, said Kumar.
The PCCF has further urged the public to report forest fire cases on the Van Mitra number and contribute towards protecting the forest wealth and wild animals from forest fires in Uttarakhand.
According to information provided by the department, a total of 68 forest fire points had been marked in different parts of the State as on April 13. It is pertinent to mention here that considerably lesser rainfall during the winter season and past few months has resulted in a drought like situation in Uttarakhand.
This has resulted in financial loss for due to crop damage caused by climatic anomalies in addition to which the low moisture has raised the probability of forest fires in places that are in tinder-dry condition.