180 hectares of green cover gutted in fresh Uttarakhand forest fires

 Soaring temperatures in Uttarakhand reignited forest fires in the hill state on Wednesday, with nearly 180 hectares of green cover gutted in the fresh fire incidents in Uttarkashi district.

Currently 180 hectares of forest land spread over 111 places in the district are in flames, Uttarkashi District Magistrate Shridhar Babu Addanki said.

“Rangers and Divisional Forest Officers have been asked to rush to the spots where fires are active and extinguish the flames as soon as possible,” he said. 

DFO Barkot D K Singh and DFO Purola Sandeep Kumar said there is no dearth of funds and equipment and they expect to control the blazes soon.

Uttarakhand is reeling under heat wave conditions for over a week now with most places recording temperatures which are four to five degrees above normal for this time of the year, MeT director Vikram Singh said.

That may be one of the factors behind the fresh forest fires in parts of the state, he said advising caution.

Forest fires this season, which began in February have so far destroyed nearly 4048 hectares of land in Uttarakhand in 1857 incidents.

The rising trend in temperature is likely to continue for a few days more with the temperature of Dehradun which recorded a maximum of 40.2 degrees Celsius on Tuesday likely to hover around 41 degrees on Wednesday, he said, adding there is no respite from heat likely over the next 48 hours.

Meanwhile, a major forest fire broke out in Trikuta hills, the abode of Mata Vaishno Devi, in Katra town of Reasi district following which the Air Force on Wednesday pressed into service two MI-17 helicopters to douse the blaze.

“A massive forest fire broke out at several places in the forests of Katra town, adjoining Banganga area, the base camp of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine on Tuesday”, SSP Reasi Sujit Kumar said.

He said following the fire the helicopters used for ferrying the pilgrims to the cave shrine had to be shifted to safer places.

“On Tuesday, the yatra was affected as the chopper service remained suspended, it remained suspended on Wednesday also for some time but now the fire at several places has been contained so the service was re-started”, Kumar said.

Following the massive fire that spread to several areas, the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board requested the Air Force to help douse the fire.

“At around 6:30 am on Wednesday, Air Force Station Udhampur received a distress call from Shrine Board requesting help to douse the fire. Two MI-17 helicopters were pressed into service to lift water from Reasi Dam to be sprinkled on areas engulfed by the forest fire”, a defence spokesman said.

He said the two MI-17 helicopters have been continuously making sorties and lifting water to douse the fire.

“With the help of the Air Force, we have been able to extinguish the fire to a great extent. Barring few far off areas, the fire has been controlled in most of the areas on Trikuta hills,” the SSP said.

He said no loss of life or property was reported due to the forest fire.