Press helicopter water sprinkling service into action to douse Uttarakhand jungle fires

The way forest fire that had adopted gigantic proportions in whole of Uttarakhand in Garhwal and Kumaon hills of Pauri, Tehri, Rudraprayag, Karnaprayag, Uttarkashi, Pithoragarh and Almora districts and subsequent failure of the state government to douse the massive fire despite 5400 employees of the forest department and disaster management including the state police on the job, as claimed by theauthorities, it unambiguously speaks of the fact that the state and central leadership seems to be little or negligibly concerned to counter this dreaded situation on war front.

Today the government of the same party is in power at the centre as well as in the state and therefore there is no dearth of funds to tackle the fire on a credible scale.

About 1800 acres of the forests as of now have been raged by the fire and in Tehri Garhwal itself about 5 kilometre of the jungles are on rapid fire which is further enhancing with an uncontrollable pace.

In 2016 about 11000 or more acres of forests have been damaged in the fire causingcollosal loss to the flora and fauna, human and wild life.

While in the trikoot forests near Vaishno Devi Shrine when forest fire appeared two days ago, the police and the forest authorities are using choppers to douse the fire through sprinkling of water on a massive scale where as, in Uttarakhand despite so much of loss to the forests and wild life this highly effective technique has not been used till date whereas during the 2016 forest fire when Uttarakhand was under the governor’s rule helicopters were pressed into service to douse the increasing fires in the UK jungles by way of sprinking water on a wide scale and finally the fire was brought under control.

It is high time now that the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and the forest minister Dr. Harak Singh Rawat, tighten their belts and press as much as choppers they can, into service with the help of the forest department and NDRF to douse the expeditiously spreading fire before it’s too late. There are authentic and confirmed reports that hundreds of the wildlife have been roasted inside the jungles on fire and if not controlled in time, can further led to more fatalities not only to the wild life but human beings too.

It may be recalled that in 2016 about 8 persons succumbed to thejungle fire while dousing it during the summers. These wide ranging fires has also impacted the temperature of the state which is usually pleasent and below 30% celcius during the summers but has enhanced tremendously thus leading to the eruption of several deseases and physical complexities as well. Two days ago the Dehradun temperature was 41% celcius and in the interiors of the hills like Almora etc more than 35 degree celsious or more.