Forest fire incident occurred in Binsar wildlife sanctuary
PrashantNews
Taking strong action after four forest department personnel were burnt alive and equal number of injured in a forest fire in Almora in Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday ordered suspension of two top forest officials and attachment of one other.
Under the orders, Koka Rose, Forest Conservator Kumaon North, and Dhruv Singh Martolia, DFO Civil Soyam Almora, have been placed under suspension. P K Patro, Chief Forest Conservator Kumaon has been attached with the headquarters in Dehradun.
Dhami also said all the four seriously injured personnel are being airlifted to AIIMS-Safdarjang Delhi for better treatment.
The incident occurred at Binsar wildlife sanctuary in Almora on Thursday when eight forest personnel were going in the jungles to control the raging forest fires.
The forest department personnel alighted from Bolero vehicle to douse forest fires inside the sanctuary. As they were trying to control the fire, the flames became uncontrollable and spread engulfing the forest personnel. In the raging fire, four personnel were burnt alive and four others were injured. The Boleoro vehicle was also burnt in the incident.
The four personnel who died in the fire have been identified as Trilok Singh Mehta (forest beat officer), Diwan Ram (daily wager) , Karan Arya (fire watcher) and Puran Singh (PRD Jawan). All the four bodies have been sent for postmortem.
Last month, three Nepalese labourers were killed in a resin factory at Almora forest division which caught fire due to forest fires.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed grief over the incident and said the family members of the deceased would get a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each.