The Dehradun district magistrate Ashish Kumar Srivastava directed the forest department and sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs) to impose strict penalties and take legal action against those causing forest fires.
In a meeting with the forest fire safety committee of the district on Thursday, DM instructed the forest department to take all the key steps to prevent spread forest fires across the district and asked them to activate forest committees soon. He also urged the representatives of various other departments like Public Works Department (PWD), district disaster management, rural development department, police department and education department to work in coordination with the forest department to prevent damage to forests. He instructed PWD to ensure that fire is extinguished properly when the wooden logs are burned to cook food for labourers or for metalling of roads in remote areas. He also asked officials concerned to raise awareness among the population residing near forest areas about the importance of protection of forests and how deforestation can cause soil erosion, flood and depletion of water sources. Moreover, Srivastava also directed the forest department to active forest committees at Gram Panchayat and Van Panchayat levels. DM pointed out that it is crucial to connect local residents with the forests and hence directed the forest department to display the numbers of concerned forest officials in various signboards along the forest areas of district so that people can easily contact them.
Friday, 05 February 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
