Goa forest fires: 24×7 control room set up
1 min read 11 Mar 2023, 03:07 PM ISTLong dry-spell coupled with unprecedented high summer temperature and low humidity has resulted in a conducive atmosphere for fire, which has been aggravated by high winds observed, particularly after sundown
PremiumNew Delhi: The Union environment ministry on Saturday set up a 24x7 control room to monitor in real time alerts generated by Forest Survey of India (FSI) as forest fires continuing to rage in Goa.
The ministry said there has not been any reports of major damages till now.
The impacted areas have been divided into sectors and duties have been assigned to officers for intensive management of forest fires in close coordination with line departments. More than 750 people have been deployed to attend to incidents of fire on a war footing, the ministry said.
To check and prevent unauthorised entries into forest areas, specific directions have been also given to DCFs to enforce forest laws, as applicable and that matter be flagged to police for investigation at their levels as well.
“Joint teams, in co-ordination with District Collector (North)/(South), Police Department, District Disaster Management Authority, Directorate of Fire and Emergency Services, local community, including PRI are deployed on field for immediate management of the fire incidences on war-footing," it said.
Field executives and teams are cutting off fuel to fire through creation of fire-lines and fire breaks, beating of bushes, counter firing, clearing the leaf litter, ministry stated.
“Long dry-spell (almost no rains since mid-October, 2022), coupled with unprecedented high summer temperature with low humidity has resulted in a conducive atmosphere for fire, which has been aggravated by high winds observed in the past couple of weeks, particularly after sundown," said the ministry.
As per reports received from the field, during 5-11 March, 48 fire spots have been detected in which 41 incidents of fires have been doused and seven remain active.
