Rains bring relief in UK from forest fires
PrashantNews
Widespread rains lashing Uttarakhand since Wednesday evening brought relief from the raging forest fires and the rising temperatures in the hills with the state government saying no new incident was reported during the past 24 hours.
The state administration has also effectively used all its manpower to bring the fire incidents under control, Chief Secretary Radha Raturi said on Thursday. Significantly, the response time after getting the fire alert has been reduced substantially which has proved helpful in controlling the forest fires, she said.
However, the rains also created flood-like situations in some rivers and rivulets in the state with a cloud-burst occurring in Someshwar area of Almora district.
The Met department said rains would continue for a couple of more days with the activity substantially increasing from May 11. “We believe the forest fires will be controlled by these rains,” said Bikram Singh, Director of the Met department in Dehradun.
A worried Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday remained on alert mode as he took stock of the situation in the wake of the raging forest fires. He also put 10 forest personnel under suspension for dereliction of duty in dousing the fire. Besides, the forest department has also initiated action against seven other officials like serving them show-cause notices and attaching some of them to the headquarters,
Significantly, the Forest Department has also claimed that the incidents of forest fire are continuously decreasing since the last two days and as a result of the efforts being made to extinguish the forest fire, it will soon be completely controlled.
Apart from creating public awareness, he also asked the District Magistrates to seek public cooperation to control forest fires. He also asked to minimize the response time between receiving information about forest fire and taking action on it.
The Chief Minister also asked to make an effective plan and build Pirul collection centers to collect Pirul (dry leaves of pine trees), which is the main reason for forest fires. He also asked the officials to take strict action against those involved in deliberate incidents of forest fire.
Later, the Chief Minister reached Rudraprayag and collected Pirul leaves scattered in the forest and gave a message to the public to join it. In this regard, the Chief Minister said in a post on social media, ‘I request all the people of the state to join hands with Yuvak Mangal Dal, Mahila Mangal Dal and self-help groups on a large scale to save the forests around them. Try to run it as a campaign.”
He also said the government is also working on ‘Bring Pirul-Save Money’ mission under which Pirul will be purchased at the rate of Rs 50 per kg. Dhami said that this mission will be operated by the Pollution Control Board for which a corpus fund of Rs 50 crore will be kept separately.