Tuesday, 22 February 2022 | PNS | New Tehri
A district-level forest fire meeting presided over by the Tehri district magistrate Eva Ashish Srivastava was held through video conferencing at the district administration hall on Monday. In the meeting, an action plan of Rs.1204.06 lakh under the district fire plan to prevent forest fires was approved by the district level committee headed by the district magistrate. The total expenditure amount of Rs.695.20 lakh proposed by the district magistrate for the year 2022-23 was approved on the occasion.
The district magistrate directed the forest department officials to provide details of demand for equipment and vehicles for forest protection without any delay so that the same are provided soon. She also said that the public representatives, Pradhans, Van Panchayats and field staff of the forest department of civil areas and Van Panchayats who are able to mitigate incidents of forest fires will be felicitated on August 15 this year. She directed that additional registrations be done in the FSI Fire Alert on the website of the Forest Survey of India so that immediate action can be taken against the fire incidents in forest areas. She said that all the departments concerned should ensure that people are involved in the FSI fire alert by conducting mass awareness workshops at the village level also in coordination with each other. Srivastava directed the departments of Revenue, Disaster Management, Police, Medical Health, Traffic, Fire, Public Works Department, Telecommunication, Power and others to publicise on a large scale the prevention measures being adopted by forest department.
Forest department officials informed about division-wise forest area, range-wise forest area, reasons for forest fire incidents, forest fire incidents of past years, forest management, regulation, and controlled works among other aspects. It was stated that normally, every year, the month of forest fire lasts from February 15 to June 15 or till the onset of regular rains and causes damage to the valuable forest wealth, wildlife and environment.
Sensitisation towards the issue through Van Panchayat members and at school level through seminars and street plays should be facilitated. Publicity through poster slogans on the importance of forest and fire safety appeal to prevent forest fires through means of media should be initiated.
To control incidents of forest fire a master control room for the district will be set up in Tehri forest division, New Tehri with contact numbers 7078209400 and 01376232077. Further, each range of each forest division will have a range control room in which the information system will be activated. A total of 176 crew stations have been set up in the district, out of which 48 are in Tehri forest division, 69 in Narendranagar forest division, 22 in Mussoorie forest division along with more crew stations in New Tehri, Tehri Dam forest division and soil conservation section. Regular fire drills will be conducted by the staff and fire watchers so they are able to control incidents of a forest fires.
Divisional Forest Officer of Narendranagar Rajiv Dhiman, Chief Medical Officer Dr Sanjay Jain, ASP Rajan Singh, DDO Sunil Kumar, SDO Mussoorie Forest Division Subhash Chandra Verma, District Youth Welfare Officer Pankaj Tiwari and other departmental officials were present in the meeting.
