As the unprecedented forest inferno spread to 13 districts of Uttarakhand destroying 2,269 hactares of forest, the Centre on Sunday deployed Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters and 6,000 personnel comprising National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), forest staff and volunteers to contain the blaze. The forest fire has destroyed the mixed forest of Sal-Chir at Adwani in Narendranagar — which was among the success stories of the Chipko movement.
Three IAF choppers (1 AlH and 2 Mi 17) with Bambi bucket and 116 rescuers of NDRF were on Sunday pressed into service to help the State Government control the situation. A Union Home Ministry (MHA) spokesperson said, the fire is under control. The Mi helicopter, which has a capacity to carry 3,000 litres of water, is collecting water from Bhimtal lake and making sorties over Almakhan, Kilbari and Nalena areas of Nainital district to douse the fires, Principal Conservator of Forest (PCF) and nodal officer BP Gupta told the media. low visibility, however, prevented a second chopper from being deployed in Pauri district for the aerial operations. IAF officials said that 15 sorties were flown, totalling 6 hours 20 minutes, during which over 30,000 litres of water was sprayed from the helicopters on Sunday.
A four-member Central team of experts, including Special Director Centre for Fire Explosives KC Wadha and director of Delhi Fire Services GC Misra, reached Uttarakhand on Sunday to assess the situation and suggest possible remedies. In view of the urgency of the matter, the team will submit its report to the MHA within a week with its recommendations. Earlier in the day, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the forest fire situation with top officials of the Uttarakhand Government and assured them of all Central assistance.
Talking exclusively to The Pioneer, Governor KK Paul said efforts are on to extinguish the forest fires. “Maximum efforts have been put in to bring the raging fire under control. IAF choppers have started dumping loads of water on forest fires in Nainital and Pauri districts. But our prime focus, as of now, is to contain the spread of the blaze. We can’t rule out sabotage and a few arrests have been made in this regard,” said Paul.
Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said trial runs have begun for a pre-fire alert system in the country. “This will issue warnings via SMS on possible fire outbreaks in the country so that the forest department can attend to them immediately. Pre-fire alert system will be given to 16 States in the first phase, including Uttarakhand, by June 30,” he said.
NDRF Director General OP Singh told the media on Sunday, “Our teams are working in 13 sectors in coordination with the officials and personnel of the State fire and forest department. The teams have been instructed to adopt the conventional method of cutting the fire line and containing the fire. We are using fire beaters and green bushes to cut the fire from spreading. About 135 personnel as part of multiple teams are working in Uttarakhand at present.”
He said while in Chamoli the NDRF is working in Pakhi and Gopeshwar areas, in Almora the teams are working in areas like Binsar, Someshwar, Bikisen, Siplakhet and Dhauladevi.
Each team is covering an area of 8-10 sq km, the DG said, adding additional NDRF teams have been kept in standby near here in Ghaziabad. The force also saved a house in which a family of four lived from the blaze in the hilly area of Mehlchori in Pauri district.
The authorities claimed that the situation is gradually getting under control, latest satellite imagery of the forest fires has reported that the blaze has been extinguished in over 75 per cent of the affected area in the hill State.
The water sprinkling operations commenced on Sunday as part of efforts to douse the fires that has killed seven persons and destroyed 2,269 hectares of forested land. The fire has also spread to sparsely populated remote hill areas.
As per data from the National Remote Sensing Centre of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Indian Science Research Organisation, Hyderabad, there are at least 200 locations in Uttarakhand that have active fires. These have multiplied by nearly four times in the last 24 hours. Since February, a total of 922 cases of forest fires have been reported across the state.