Firefighting operations lag due to lack of advanced mechanism

COIMBATORE: Lives of front line forest staff involved in firefighting operations are at stake, every time, when fire outbreaks in the forest area.

“There is no firefighting equipment and safety gear to protect us during an operation. It is like fighting a deadly enemy in a battle with bare hands. As the fire spot is also inaccessible by vehicles, we follow age-old practice of beating green branches of trees to douse the fire. This should change to some advanced techniques like deploying drones to spray chemicals to put off fires,” said K Sivaprakasam, president of Tamil Nadu Forest Staff Association.

Reeling under an acute shortage of staff, the Forest Department usually engages local labourers during firefighting operations. “Only because of the support from people of the local community, who know the terrain well, do we manage to douse the fire in a forest area. Many sustain injuries during the operation, but go unnoticed and without getting due recognition for their work,” said a frontline staff.

Rather than going hung ho after fire outbreak, priority should be on preventing fires. “Special fire prevention squads comprising at least 10 members by including local people should be constituted in every range during the summer months. Also, fire patrolling should be made a routine to prevent and also detect fires even in the early stage to carry out the dousing operations. It consumes time to reach the spot after mobilising strength, as by then the fire spreads out and becomes unmanageable. However, fund crunch is crippling the department as the personnel weren’t provided with even proper shoes and uniforms,” added Sivaprakasam.