The Forest Department hopes the IAF will douse the fire by Monday evening or Tuesday.
PTI
Four helicopters of the Indian Air Force (IAF) were deployed on Monday afternoon to douse the fire, which has been raging since Thursday in the Bandipur Tiger Reserve. The operation on Monday was primarily limited to the Gopalaswamy Betta Range in Karnataka’s Chamarajanagar district. The other two ranges that were majorly affected were Kundakere and Bandipur. The helicopters were deployed after Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Monday sought help from the Indian Air Force. IAF helicopters during fire fighting op #BandipurForestFire pic.twitter.com/7PP6B80k4L — Soumya Chatterjee (@Csoumya21) February 25, 2019 Sridhar Punnati, the head of the Forest Department, told TNM, “The Air Force has done a recce and identified the water source, including Nagu dam. In total, four helicopters are being pressed into service. We hope to douse the fire by Monday evening or latest by Tuesday morning. We think 15-20 sorties may be required to completely contain the fire.” He, however, adds that a lot depends on the winds. “Currently, the wind speed is more than 12km/hour while the place usually sees a wind speed of around 5km/hour. The fire is spreading and may reach the power plant near Tamil Nadu border. Hence, choppers have been pressed into service.” While the exact extent of the damage is yet to be assessed, Forest Minister Satish Jarkiholi on Monday said 2,000 hectares of forest land has been affected. Officials in the CM’s office also said Chief Secretary TM Vijaya Bhaskar has been given the responsibility to personally monitor the operation to douse the fire. More resources were allocated to the Chamarajanagar district police and fire officials from neighbouring districts. These developments come after activists on the ground claimed lack of initiative from the political class. Ganesh C, a volunteer assisting the firefighting operations, for the last few days, said, “Till 3 pm, the choppers had only carried out an aerial survey. The smoke is much less now and everything that could be burnt already burnt in the last three days. We are now on the other side of the GS Betta range in Maddur, where the fire seems to be less compared to Sunday. In Bandipur also, there is less smoke. Even in Gundlupet side, there is less fire.”
Body 2:
from Karnataka https://ift.tt/2TaVYsn
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment