NEW DELHI: As the raging fires in Uttarakhand engulfed more than 2,000 hectares of forested area across Pauri, Nainital, Rudraprayag and Tehri, the Centre on Sunday approved `5 crore for firefighting along with deployment of 6,000 personnel to tackle the inferno. Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Saturday held a meeting with various stakeholders on the issue. “Home Ministry, NDRF and Air Force are guiding the efforts. During last month, fires had broken out in more than 1,200 places and more than 1,900 hectares of forest was affected,” Javadekar said.
Three Air Force helicopters — 1 ALH and 2 MI-17 — with Bambi bucket have been pressed into service at Nainital and Pauri. Though one MI-17, deployed at Nainital, managed several sorties sprinkling water to douse the flames in sparsely populated areas, low visibility prevented the second chopper operation in Pauri. While Home Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the situation in Delhi and held discussions with the chief secretary and other officials of the Uttarakhand government, Amit Negi, secretary, State Disaster Management, discussed the issue with State agencies involved in firefighting. They also the sought help of ISRO so that areas facing the worst blaze could be identified through satellite imagery.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has deployed three teams in three districts which conducted operations at 14 locations using traditional methods of firefighting. The minister said top forest officials, including the director general of forest, are on the spot and guiding the local workforce. He said the government is working on pre-fire alerts and its test run has begun.
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