Recently the Commissioner Secretary, Forest, Ecology & Environment Department chaired a meeting to review the preparedness and action plan for forest fires management.
The meeting had a detailed discussion on the prevailing scenario with regard to forest fires. It was informed that the Kashmir Division is prone to forest fires during March and April and less precipitation during the recent winters has increased the risk of these incidents. It was also revealed that in addition to natural reasons, the forest fires are also being caused by the unscrupulous elements. While the Department is taking preventive measures to mitigate these fires due to natural causes, it has also initiated action against the culprits who deliberately set forest fires. There are 8 FIRs lodged in this regard, and the investigation has been initiated by the Police Department.
It was mentioned that the forest fires in Jammu Division usually occur during the dry and hot season of April to June. The department has already initiated various preventive measures in this regard.
It was decided that present practice of having multiple control rooms shall be dispensed with to ensure optimum utilization of resources. For this purpose, joint forest fire control rooms shall be established in vulnerable areas, after proper mapping with pooling of the trained staff from Territorial, Forest Protection Force, Wildlife Protection and other organizations which shall be equipped with all requisite fire fighting equipment.
The Commissioner Secretary directed for immediate notification of duty roasters, on this account, by the respective DFOs. He also asked for devising an interactive online reporting mechanism for forest fires for better coordination among all stakeholders. He directed the field agencies to launch aggressive IEC campaigns to sensitize the general public for achieving the desired objectives.
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