Our Correspondent
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh assured the Uttarakhand Governor K K Paul of providing all necessary assistance to the state to control the forest fires and help in containing the damage. Mr. Singh spoke to Governor regarding the incidents of forest fires in the state and reviewed the situation.
The Home Ministry has already sent teams of National Disaster Response Force to help the state administration control the forest fire.
More than 1900 hector of forest land have been affected by forest fire in the districts of Almora, Pouri and Gauchar in Kumaoun and Garwal region of Uttarakhand. NDRF and SDRF personal have been deployed to douse the fire.
Two Air Force helicopters have been rushed into service to fight the fire in Pauri and Nanital districts. Forest areas of Almora, Chamoli, Pouri, Rudra Prayag and Pithora districts have been badly affected by the fire.
Governor Dr. K.K.Paul has directed all DMs of the affected districts to make full use of available resources to douse the fire. Nainital High court has also expressed concern and directed to control the fire in the shortest possible time.
Three teams of NDRF were deployed in Almora, Gauchar and Pauri and one team of SDRF in Nainital to extinguish the flames.
Since the beginning of forest fire incidents in the state in early February this year, 922 incidents have occurred so far killing six people including three women and a child and blighting nearly 2,000 hectares of green cover.