The number of fire watchers has been doubled in order to mitigate forest fires. Their numbers have been increased 3,000 to 6,000 in Uttarakhand where the fire safety week will be observed from April 14 to 20.
The forest department will prepare the plan for mitigating forest fires in reserved forests, civil Soyam and on Van Panchayat lands. Drones will also be put to use this time for the detection of forest fires, it was decided in a meeting presided over by the Chief Secretary S Ramaswamy in the secretariat on Thursday. Through video-conferencing, the chief secretary directed all the DMs to observe of the forest fire management plan and to remain vigilant.
It was stated in the meeting that a total of 40 master control rooms have been set up for the mitigation of forest fires. In addition to these, 1,416 crew stations, 171 watch towers, 391 temporary sets, 177 mobile sets, 1,534 handsets, 43 repeaters, rakes, cutting tools, fire finder’s brace hook, face-mask helmet, torch and other equipment and tools have been arranged for. Along with these, 15,400 trained human resource and 40,000 local residents trained by the state disaster response force (SDRF) will also be deployed in case of forest fires.
Officials informed in the meeting that a district and state level forest fire control and management plans had been prepared. The sensitive areas have been divided into four zones. These have been categorised into 11,280 square kilometre of high risk zone, 15,410 square kilometres medium risk zone, 11144 square kilometres low risk zone and 15648 square kilometres no-risk zone. Fire lines, bridle paths and forest motor roads have been cleaned while controlled and regular burning is also being carried out. While arrangement has been made to send pre-fire alert SMS through WhatsApp, various programmes are also being organised to raise public awareness, averred the officials.
A total of 4,600 field staff, 5,600 fire watchers and Van Panchayat members have received training so far.