IAF DEPLOYS COPTERS TO DOUSE FOREST FIRE IN U’KHAND

DEHRADUN: A day after chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat was assured of all possible help by Union home minister Amit Shah to fight the raging forest fire in state, two Indian Air Force Mi-17 helicopters reached Uttarakhand on Monday to douse the wildfire.

The development comes after Rawat held an emergency meeting with authorities concerned to assess the forest fire situation in the state and had informed that the Centre would send two choppers to help the state in tackling the situation along with NDRF teams on standby.

Rawat said, “The IAF helicopters have been deployed to douse the forest fire in the state. They would significantly help the ground staff in controlling the situation in our forests which are state’s precious assets.” He also shared videos and photographs of one of the choppers filling water from Tehri Lake in Tehri Garhwal district to douse the forest fire.

Of the two choppers, one of them would be stationed in Gauchar of Chamoli district of Garhwal region while the other one would be stationed in Haldwani town of Nainital district of Kumaon region.

Forest and wildlife minister Harak Singh Rawat said, “One of the choppers started operation at 10 am by conducting an air recce of the burning forest of Narendra Nagar range in Tehri Garhwal district. It then filled water in the 5,000 litres bucket from Tehri Lake and sprayed it over the burning forest four times. The forest fire in Narendra Nagar range was doused.”

On Sunday, the CM cancelled leaves of all the forest department officials amid the “serious situation” of forest fire. He directed all of them along with their staffers to be in their work place to fight the situation.

Rawat also directed authorities to take help of Van Panchayats and locals in fighting the forest fire.