Pithoragarh/Tehri Garhwal: Amid rising temperatures, a fire broke out in the Dhanoda forest area in Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh on Monday night.
Pithoragarh District Magistrate (DM) Ashish Kumar Chauhan, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Coco Rosso, reached the spot at around 8 pm. "DFO and I had a discussion; our master control room will be started as a disaster management office to counter such frequent instances and to take quick actions," said Chauhan. A team of forest personnel, tehsildar, the revenue sub-inspector, and the disaster management officer also reached the spot. The fire was brought under control in two hours.
Meanwhile, the forest fires have been burning hectares of land for the last 4-5 days in Tehri Garhwal and reached about 4-5km in the Kirtinagar area.
The fire has also reached the residential settlement around the village, but the forest department and administration are being unsuccessful in extinguishing the fire. It is not possible to control the fire due to a lack of resources, while the locals said that the administration is not aware of the burning forests. "It is very disheartening to know that a huge forest cover, as well as loss of life, is taking place due to fire in the forests," said PS Rana, Senior Professor of Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna University. "The forests are burning at an alarming rate, and in such a situation, the government will have to save the forest using modern resources," he added. —ANI