Uttarakhand forest fire under control, say forest officials

According to reports, the number of forest fire incidents in the hill state has fallen since Friday

The raging fire in Uttarakhand forests is slowly coming under control even as the Air Force helicopters fitted with water tanks sprayed gallons of waters to bring the blaze under control, forest department officials said on Monday.

According to reports, the number of forest fire incidents in the hill state has fallen since in past three days. The number of incidents was 437 on Friday, while the next day it came down to 219. On Sunday, only 140 incidents were reported. Hundreds of villagers are driving down the mountains fearing the spread of fire.

The situation is stated to be worse in Pauri and Nainital forests. Pauri district magistrate Chandrashekhar Bhatt told Business Standard that seven sorties were undertaken by Air Force’s MI-17 helicopter on Sunday evening. In each sortie, the chopper sprayed nearly 4,000 litres of waters in the jungles of Pauri.

Read more from our special coverage on "UTTARAKHAND FIRE"

• Uttarakhand fire: Affected areas down by over 70%, says NDRF

Similarly, one more chopper sprayed water in the forests of Nainital district and brought the situation under control. Chief Secretary Shaturghan Singh and Additional Chief Secretary (Forests) S Ramaswami maintained that state is doing all it can to douse the fire.

D V S Khati, state chief wildlife warden said fire at the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) and Rajaji National Park had been brought under control. Khati said he had not received any report regarding any damage to the wild animals so far.

According to an estimate, tourism traffic has fallen by 30 to 40% in Uttarakhand after a high alert was sounded in the wake of the raging forests fires, prompting the authorities to take the help of Air Force helicopters to douse the leaping flames.

The prolonged dryspell is the main culprit behind the inferno though the authorities are not ruling out sabotages in some areas. In most of the cases, the fire starts from dried pine needles which are considered to be highly inflammable. 

So far, the fire has killed five people and destroyed more than 2,200 hectares of forests in Kumaon and Garhwal regions. The forest department has already decided to double the number of personnel deployed to douse the flames from 3,000 to 6,000. The state has also asked the NDRF and SDRF for help.