Fire-affected areas of Rajaji park inspected

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 27

After reports of widespread forest fires in some of the ranges, Rajaji Tiger Reserve’s authorities today inspected the affected areas.

Park warden Ajay Sharma today visited the Yamkeshwar region of the Rajaji Tiger Reserve that had been witnessing forest fires for the past few days. Sharma also met senior forest officials at the Gohri range and took stock of the situation.

He asked the forest employees to take necessary action towards dousing forest fires. He directed them to prepare a report on forest fires. He said 20 additional personnel had been deployed to douse forest fires in the reserve.

Meanwhile, forest fire also broke out in the Pathri forests in Haridwar district. Forest officials rushed to the site after being informed about the fire by villagers. They had tough time dealing with the forest fire. Similarly, forest fires that started in Almora district a few days back continued to blaze today.

Significantly, with rising temperatures, incidents of forest fires are on the rise in the state. There have been little rains this year and thus forest fires scenario could further deteriorate in coming days. The forest officials are heavily banking on rains to douse these fires but there looks little respite in sight as meteorological officials have ruled out immediate rains in coming few days.