Villagers urged to help curb forest fires

Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, February 22

Forest officials interacted with villagers in New Tehri today and appealed to them to support the efforts of the department in curbing forest fires prior to the summer.

Divisional Forest Officer, Tehri Dam range, BP Singh met gram pradhans, sarpanchs and common people from the district and appealed to them to help in checking forest fires this summer. He urged them that by saving forests from fires lives of numerous creatures depending on forest could also be saved.

BP Singh said due to rise in temperatures the probability of forest fires also increases manifold. Hence, it was the duty of everyone to keep constant vigil to mitigate the incidents of forest fire. “Forests are an important resource of the country and utmost care should be taken to save them from fires,” he added.

He appealed to the villagers to avoid smoking in forest, igniting fire for fodder grass and burn dry leaves. He said forest fires not only harmed the environment and the biodiversity of the region. The department was working in reserved forests, civil and panchayat forests to mitigate fire incidents but it requires contributions from every person.

The Forest Department had drawn lot of flak in 2016 when massive fires raged in Garhwal and Kumaon, resulting in loss of livestock and destruction of forests. The department has started awareness programmes early this year as forest fires occur frequently during the summer.