The Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh has directed the District Magistrates to prepare contingency plan to prevent forest fires in the State. He gave these orders while undertaking a review meeting at state secretariat on Tuesday.
In the meeting, the CS said that the DMs should make preparation in accordance to the District Forest Fire Security Scheme. He said that employees should be posted in all crew station, the communication equipments should be checked and controlled fires should be ignited to prevent forest fires. In the meeting, the officials told the CS that cleaning of 8700 fire lines has been done and 40 master control rooms, 1437 crew stations and 174 watch towers in the state have been activated. The department has appointed coordinating officers and garbage in 150000 hectare forests have been cleared. The officials further claimed that arrangement for all fire fighting equipment has been made and trainings to fire fighters have been given. The department has made the systems like alert of Forest Survey of India and early warning online.
As per official estimates, 2074 incidences of forest fires in 4433 hectare land occurred in the year 2016 while only 804 fires in 1244 hectare were reported in the year 2017.
The meeting was attended by Additional Chief Secretary Ranvir Singh, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Jayaraj, Chief Conservator of Forest B P Gupta, CAMPA CEO Samir Sinha attended the meeting.