Things on the front of forest fires were still worrisome in Garhwal region on Monday, a day after a massive operation involving NDRF, SDRF, forest, revenue and police was undertaken to put out the blaze. It is learnt that 123 incidents of forest fires have been reported from different forest circles of the region on Monday, the figure including 66 incidents in reserve forest areas and 57 incidents in civil forest areas.
The total area of the forest affected by the blaze in Garhwal Circle, Bhagirathi Circle, Yammuna Circle and Shivalik Circle have gone up to 1413.01 hectors with as many as 803 forest fire incidents being reported till Monday.
Chief conservator of forest Gambhir Singh said that the fire has occurred in 766.01 hectors of reserve forest and 647.00 hectors in civil forest areas of the four circles of the forest.
He claimed that sufficient forest fire control equipment has been provided to the forest team. The forest team has been using the reck equipment to prevent the spread of fire and using ambush to extinguish the fire instead of the heavy iron Jhaaru, he said, adding that they are putting out all the stops to bring things under complete control.
The new incidents of fire reported on Monday in the Garhwal Circle include 22 in reserve forest and 34 in civil forest. In Bhagirathi Circle, the figures are 23 and 15 respectively while in Yammuna Circle, the figures are 14 in reserve and seven. They are seven and one respectively in Shivalik Circle.
According to the information provided by the office of the conservator of forest Pauri, the number of the forest fire in the Garhwal Circle is 369 till now, affecting 725.25 hector of reserve and civil forest. Out of the affected forest fire areas, 30.50 hectors are from the plantation. Around 13205 plants have been destroyed so far.