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Approx 1318 forest fire incidents recorded in the state this year so far, affecting 12718 hectares of forest land, including 2789 hectares of plantation area.

CM directed the forest department to make concerted efforts to address the issue of forest fires in Himachal.

 

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has expressed serious concern over the forest fire incidents and directed the forest department to take concerted efforts to address the issue.

 

Presiding over the meeting of the Forest department today, he instructed them to initiate long-term measures along with immediate initiatives to curb the problem. He stressed the people's participation in these efforts.

 

The Chief Minister said that 1318 fire incidents had been recorded so far this year, affecting 12718 hectares of land including 2789 hectares of plantation area causing a preliminary financial loss of Rs 4.61 crore. 

 

He said that to mitigate these losses, the state government was contemplating forming a dedicated battalion of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) specially equipped and trained for firefighting to reduce losses to the forest area.

 

He said that 374 forest beats were highly sensitive for forest fires and called for strengthening the fire-tackling services in these areas.

 

Sukhu emphasised diversifying the conifer plant regions with specific plant species of the area to help retain the moisture and reduce the number of fire incidents.  He also directed the forest department to conduct a study from the government agency to look into the causes of fire incidents and recommend necessary actions.

 

Industries Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan, Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena, Additional Chief Secretary Onkar Chand Sharma, Principal Secretary, Forests Dr Amandeep Garg, Secretary to the Chief Minister Rakesh Kanwar, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Rajiv Kumar and senior officers of the department attended the meeting.