Despite one IAF chopper dumping water on the burning forest areas on Sunday and the teams of NDRF and SDRF along with forest, police and revenue department officials pressed to work in tandem to douse the raging flame in Pauri district, five fresh incidents of forest fire have come up in the district on Monday. The DM claimed that things are coming under control as the incidents of the forest fire have been coming down considerably.
It is learnt that the IAF chopper based at Srinagar could not be flown due to low visibility factor that prevailed till noon on Monday. It started operating after 3 PM only after the visibility turned normal.
On Sunday, visibility being high, the chopper made several rounds of the fire-ravaged areas of Sumari, Khirsu, Mandakhal and Chaubatakhal and dumped around 28,000 liters of water to control the blaze.
Pauri District Magistrate Chandra Shekhar Bhatt said to The Pioneer on Monday that a total of 284 forest fires had been reported in the district, which affected 757.25 hectors of reserve and civil forest in the district.
“Things are improving as just five such incidents have been noticed on Monday,” he said.
DM also said that 622 people had been deployed to extinguish and control the forest fire. “They include 500 personnel of forest department, 379 of revenue, 71 of police, 36 of NDRF and 35 of SDRF. Besides, 100 jawans from PRD have been pressed into service,” he informed.
Bhatt further said one woman had died and eight others had sustained burn injuries due to the forest blazes in the district.
“We would give the compensation amounts to the next of kin of the deceased and to those injured by Monday evening,” he said, adding that they are on their maximum guard to control and to stop the forest fires with everything they have at their disposal.