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This story is from April 30, 2016

Uttarakhand forest fire: 6 dead, nearly 2000 hectares of green cover destroyed

Chamoli, Pauri, Rudraprayag, Tehri, Uttarkashi, Pithoragarh, Almora and Nainital are the worst-affected districts. They Army has been deployed in fire-fighting operations in Rudraprayag. NDRF teams also deployed to assist in rescue operations.
Uttarakhand forest fires: Three NDRF teams deployed to douse the flames
Forest fire rages on in Bageshwar, Uttarakhand. (Pic: ANI)
DEHRADUN: Three teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and one team of SDRF are trying to douse major forest fires across Uttarakhand which have been raging since February. Six people, including three women and a child, have been killed in fire related incidents and nearly 2000 hectares of green cover destroyed.
"922 incidents have occurred so far killing six people including three women and a child, injuring seven and blighting 1890.79 hectares of green cover," Principal Conservator of Forest (Research) BP Gupta said.

Chamoli, Pauri, Rudraprayag, Tehri, Uttarkashi, Pithoragarh, Almora and Nainital are the worst-affected districts, Gupta said. Rudraprayag forest division is taking Army's help for fire-fighting operations especially along the highways, he said.
Governor KK Paul reviewed the rescue efforts under way via videoconferencing with officials in the field and asked them to speed up their efforts.
NDRF teams have been deployed in Almora, Gauchar and Pauri districts and SDRF is assisting in rescue operations in Nainital. The fires started on February 2 due to a dry winter.
IG Sanjay Gunjyal is cordinating with NDRF, District Magistrates concerned and the Principal Conservator of Forest are supervising the rescue operations, authorities said.
Locals are being encouraged to report a fire incident to the concerned District Magistrate as soon as they see it so that it can be controlled in time.

The Governor has doubled the number of personnel deployed to control the fires from 3000 to 6000. He has also asked all agencies including SDRF, district administration and the rural population to contribute their bits in the exercise, saying the forest department alone cannot accomplish the onerous task, Gupta said.
Forest fires are a natural phenomena in summer but this time they have occurred on a bigger scale as the fire season which normally begins by February 15 and ends by June 15 began on February 2 itself.
Former chief minister Harish Rawat has asked the Governor to declare Uttarakhand as a fire disaster struck state and involve locals as much as possible in fire-extinguishing efforts.
Uttarakhand Congress president Kishore Upadhyay has also written to party workers asking them to work unitedly to pull the state out of the "crisis."
The PCF said the scale of forest fires in Uttarakhand this time has been bigger due to little or no rain during winter at most places. Pre-fire alerts listing possible fire points over the next seven days in forest areas is being made available on forest department's website, an official release said.
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