Uttarakhand forest fire now under control: Kiren Rijiju

“As per the latest information, fire has been contained. Situation is under control now,” Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told reporters. 

The Minister said a team of experts has already reached Uttarakhand to ascertain the cause of fire and the extent of damage. Rijiju said if required, the central government will send more forces to the hill state to assist the state government in dousing the fires. 

More than 6,100 personnel and three IAF choppers fitted with Bambi bucket to carry water had been deployed in Uttarakhand to extinguish multiple forest fires. 

A four-member Central team of experts, including Special Director Centre for Fire Explosives KC Wadha and director of Delhi Fire Services GC Misra have reached Uttarakhand to assess the situation and suggest possible remedies. 

The government on Monday said the number of forest fires in the first four months this year has already exceeded last year’s total of such incidents. The Centre has formulated a contingency plan for dealing with such crisis. Till April 21, a total of 20,667 incidents of forest fires have taken place. In 2015, the total number of forest fire incidents were 15,937, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha. 

He said that this year, 291 forest fires have broken out in Uttarakhand, 2,422 in Chhattisgarh and 2,349 in Odisha. Madhya Pradesh reported 2,238 forest fires this year against 294 such incidents last year. 

Maharashtra reported 1,638 forest fires this year while the number is 1,719 in Assam. 1,416 fire forest incidents took place in Andhra Pradesh, the minister said quoting the figures of Forest Survey of India. In 2014, 19,054 forest fire incidents were reported, while 18,451 forest fire incidents took place in 2013.