DMs and SSPs to monitor fire brigade to prevent forest fires from spreading near roads

Monday, 29 APRIL 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN

The district magistrates and senior/ superintendents of police of all districts in the Kumaon region will monitor the fire brigade to control the forest fires that reach near the main roads and can potentially harm people. Besides this, village development officers and Gram Panchayat officers of the respective villages in the districts have also been designated as nodal officers as they are usually the first responders, the Kumaon commissioner Deepak Rawat said. Talking about the arrangements made to tackle consistent forest fire incidents across the Kumaon region, he said that he has directed all senior forest officers, range officers, district officials and police of all districts to carry out the work on a war footing with mutual coordination, especially at vulnerable areas of each district. 

As per the directions, the district magistrates of Nainital, Bageshwar and Almora have deployed additional forces of PRD and home guards as per the forest department’s demand. The additional force that will be sent to fire vulnerable areas in the forest has been trained to tackle the issue. Besides this, the respective DMs have also provided additional vehicles to the forest department’. All DMs have been directed to take all possible measures to prevent forest fires and take immediate action soon after a forest fire is reported. Rawat said that the most affected areas from forest fires are forest ranges of Haldwani, Nainital and Ramnagar in the past two days. Considering the increasing forest fires across the district, the Nainital DM Vandana Singh has also directed the authorities to take strict action against those burning garbage or any kind of material in the open.

It will be recalled that considering the alarming spread of forest fires in the Nainital district, the authorities sought the help of an Indian Air Force helicopter on Friday evening and Saturday morning to douse the fires.