BHUBANESWAR: With daytime temperature rising, Odisha now leads the country in forest fire incidents, recording more than 6,700 wildfires since the start of the season from January 1.
As per the statistics of the Forest Survey of India (FSI), the state has logged 6,762 incidents of forest fire between January 1 and March 6.
Neighbouring Andhra Pradesh stands second with 5,039 cases, followed by Karnataka (4,462), Maharashtra (4,061) and Telangana (3,800) during this period.
From Koraput to Sambalpur and Nayagarh to Mayurbhanj, wildfire has started engulfing several forest patches and their periphery across the state, with 94 large forest fire points still active in different parts.
The incidence of forest fire in the state started picking up from the last week of February. The state reported 669 cases of wildfire in a single day on Friday (March 6), throwing fresh challenges to the frontline staff of the forest department.
In Similipal, state’s biggest tiger reserve, around 96 forest fire points have been detected in the current season so far. A total 79 fire points have been detected in Similipal North division, while another 17 fire points have been reported in Similipal South division. Five large forest fire points are still active in Chahala, Nawana and Talabandha areas of the tiger habitat, the FSI data suggests.
With the peak forest fire activity typically lasting till May end, the forest department has already created fire lines of 20,461 km stretch and deployed 334 fire protection squads across all wildlife and territorial divisions. The frontline staff have also been equipped with 5,000 leaf blowers and 1,751 safety kits.
However, to get ground reports on forest fire swiftly and address them effectively, the department has now come up with a Forest Control Room with a dedicated contact number 18003457158. It has also issued a fresh standard operating procedure (SOP) for operation of such forest control room across all divisional and circle level in the state.
As per the SOP issued by the office of the PCCF and HoFF, the forest control room at the state headquarters will function as the central command, coordination and monitoring hub and coordinate with district administrations, police, railways, ODRAF, NDRF and other stakeholders in the time of need.
Similarly, the control rooms to be set up at divisional and circle level will also function round the clock and immediately alert the DFO at divisional level and RCCF at circle level, whenever there is a critical incident of fire, regardless of time.