Forest Ranger attached to divisional office in Almora for negligence towards firefighting
By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 6 May: In pursuance of the instructions of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Chief Secretary Radha Raturi today held a review meeting in respect of forest fires in the state and later she also briefed the media about the meeting. She also informed that in view of negligence towards controlling forest fires, Range Officer Jorasi in Almora Forest Division has been attached to the divisional office.
The Chief Secretary today instructed the Zonal Officer, Chief Conservator of Forests, Kumaon and Garhwal and the Reserved Wildlife Conservation Forest Areas that strict action be taken against all the officers or employees who are negligent towards effective forest firefighting. She also shared that as directed by the CM, a mobile crew team at the model crew-station has been mapped on each Chardham route and all the visible stretches and villages lying along the route. The mobile crew teams are being deployed for this. Forest fire incidents are being regularly reviewed by the state level nodal officers for forest fire and disaster management. The government is also being informed about the updated information about forest fire incidents. Daily reports of field visits or monitoring of forest fire control actions are being provided to the headquarters by senior forest officers.
Raturi was informed during the meeting that Forest fires are being controlled by minimising the response time by immediately posting the received fire alert in WhatsApp groups and immediately sending the concerned crew to the spot. By doing special monitoring on the received large forest fire alerts, the forest fire is being controlled in the shortest possible time. The Chief Secretary directed that the help of Forest Panchayats/Forest Fire Management Committees/Mahila Mangal Dals/Yuva Mangal Dals active in forest fire control should also be taken.
Raturi said that the Disaster Management Department has allocated a budget of Rs 5 crore to each District Magistrate for forest fire control. The entire team of District Magistrates, including District Disaster Management Officers, DFOs, police officers and fire watchers have been directed to continuously engage in the work of extinguishing the forest fire on the spot. In addition, Yuva Mangal Dal, Mahila Mangal Dal, self-help groups, volunteers, PSC jawans, Home Guards and PRD jawans are also being deployed in this work. The Disaster Management Department will soon purchase small sized water tankers, with the help of which fires can be easily extinguished with the help of portable pumps in high mountain areas. Arrangements for fire extinguishing cylinders are also being made immediately.
DGP Abhinav Kumar said that at the places where incidents of fire have been reported, a SOP has been made by the joint team of Forest Department officials, SDM and local police force to take action against the culprits. Under this, first action will be taken under Forest Act and Wildlife Act. Along with this, action will also be taken under the Public Private Property Damage Recovery Act recently passed in Uttarakhand. Those who are found repeatedly involved in such incidents, action will be taken against them under the Gangster Act and action will also be taken to confiscate the property of the culprits. He informed that so far, FIRs have been registered against 13 people in forest fire incidents, out of which four people have been arrested. So far, there is no information about any loss of human or wild life due to forest fires, he claimed.
Additional Principal Chief Forest Conservator Nishant Verma informed that senior officers of the Forest Department Headquarters have been designated as district level nodal officers and the designated officers have already left for the field. The process of insurance of about 4000 fire watchers working in the forest department has been started. NDRF will also be deployed in Pauri and Almora districts. Water is being sprayed in forest fire affected areas by helicopters, particularly in Pauri district. District Magistrates have passed an order to completely ban burning of fodder etc in fields and burning of solid waste in urban areas. The villages around which no forest fire incidents took place will be rewarded. The proposal for cloud seeding with IIT Roorkee is also being considered.
Secretary Dr Ranjit Kumar Sinha, Additional, Secretary Dilip Jawalkar and officials of various concerned departments were present in the meeting.