The hill state is notorious for pre-monsoon forest fires and natural phenomena too can ignite dry leaves in the parched weather.
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Convening a review meeting of officials concerned, Uttarakhand governor KK Paul decided about the measures to be taken to control the forest fires from spreading to residential areas.
Dehradun: Over 1500 villages on Sunday were under threat from the raging forest fires in Uttarakhand, prompting the centre to deploy three teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to bring the inferno under control.
Since the beginning of forest fire season in the state in February, 922 incidents have occurred so far in which seven were injured and 1890.79 hectares of green cover being affected, Gupta told PTI.
The NDRF teams are equipped with water tankers, floating pumps and medical setup to assist the rescue operations in Kumaon and Garhwal regions of the state. Pauri, Chamoli, Nainital, and Almora districts are among those where the fires have broken out.
Locals are being encouraged to report a fire incident to the District Magistrate concerned as soon as they see it so that it can be controlled in time.
All the officials of the Uttarakhand Government have been asked to work according to an action of plan in terms of forest fires and drought conditions. Though forest fire is a common thing in this Himalayan state, the rise in the incident and scale could be attributed to low rainfall in the state during last winter, say experts.
Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress President Kishore Upadhyay also wrote to all the party workers asking them to unite and save their precious wealth and health which is forest. The administration would provide the funds. NDRF and SDRF personal have been deployed to douse the fire. DMs must ensure coordination among all departments.
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Also, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Saturday sought information on fires in forests in Uttarakhand from the state government and assured all possible relief.
