IAF copters, NDRF battle fires raging in Uttarakhand

Centre deploys 6,000 personnel; 13 districts on alert.

As forest fires continue to rage and intensify across the hill state of Uttarakhand, three Mi-17 helicopters of the Indian Air Force on Sunday dumped loads of water on the days-long blaze in Nainital and Pauri districts. On Sunday morning, one Mi-17 helicopter flew several sorties in Nainital district, sprinkling water lifted from Bhimtal lake to douse the flames. For some time, low visibility stopped a second helicopter from being pressed into action in Pauri district, but the situation later changed.

At least seven people have died and 15 others injured in the fires so far. About 2,269 hectares of forested land have been destroyed with Pauri, Nainital, Rudraprayag, Tehri and Almora districts bearing most of the brunt.

The authorities claimed the situation was gradually getting better, and the latest satellite imagery of forest fires shows the blaze has been extinguished in over 75 per cent of the affected area in the hill state.

Reacting to the calamity that put at least 13 districts on fire alert, Union minister of state for environment Prakash Javadekar said Sunday the Centre was taking the matter “very seriously” and “have deployed 6,000 people”, including from the National Disaster Response Force, for firefighting “with a grant of Rs 5 crores to the state” for more manpower. “Testing of pre-fire alert systems has also been started from today.” Home minister Rajnath Singh, offering all assistance to the hill state, reviewed the situation and held discussions with the chief secretary and other officials of the Uttarakhand government. He also telephoned governor K.K. Paul to discuss the crisis.

The Congress, meanwhile, attacked the Centre, and its chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala not only blamed the Narendra Modi government for fuelling a political crisis in a peaceful state but also said it has miserably failed to tackle a major environmental tragedy. “On one side the Modi government is fuelling the fire of political defection in the peaceful state of Uttarakhand, and on the other the government has miserably failed to tackle one of the biggest environmental tragedies of recent times,” he said while claiming over 5,500 hectares of valuable flora and fauna had been lost.

Former Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna, who backed nine Congress MLAs who rebelled against the Harish Rawat government last month, blamed the previous government for failing to devise a plan to tackle such an eventuality. “What was lacking from the very beginning was that we did not have a plan by the state government and forest department for such an eventuality,” he alleged.

Earlier on Sunday, principal conservator of forest and nodal officer B.P. Gupta said the Mi-17 helicopter, which has a capacity to carry 3,000 litres of water, collected water from Bhimtal lake and made sorties over Almakhan, Kilbari and Nalena areas of Nainital district to douse the fires. However, another IAF helicopter in Pauri could not take off due to low visibility, said Pauri district magistrate Chandrasekhar Bhatt.

The situation, officials said, is likely to be brought under control in a couple of days. Three companies of NDRF, one of SDRF, besides home guard personnel, are currently engaged in the firefighting operations, Mr Gupta said. IGP Sanjay Gunjyal is coordinating with the NDRF personnel, the district magistrates and the principal conservator of forests to supervise the rescue operations. Locals are being encouraged to report fire incidents to the district magistrates as soon as they sight it, the officials said.

“With the met department predicting a significant fall in day temperatures after May 2, forest fires may get under control after a couple of days,” Mr Gupta said, but added the administration will have to remain alert for the next 35 days to prevent fresh forest fire incidents. Since the fire season began in the state in February, 922 incidents have occurred so far. Forest fires are natural during summer but this time they were on a bigger scale as the fire season, that normally begins by February 15 and ends by June 15, started early on February 2, they said.

Minister of state for environment Prakash Javadekar said his ministry had begun trial runs for a pre-fire alert system to issue warnings via SMS on possible fire outbreaks in the country so that the forest department could attend to them immediately. “We are issuing fire alerts through satellite since last year. Wherever a fire breaks out in any remote forest, we get to know immediately. But these alerts are only issued after the fire starts,” Mr Javadekar said, adding: “This is a new technology developed by our forest institutes... It will generate pre-fire alerts. SMS will be sent to all departments and officers so that action can be taken immediately.”