Forest fires under control, Himachal Govt says no to Air Force help

Vijay Mohan/Subhash Rajta

Chandigarh/Shimla, June 7

Widespread rains in many areas of Himachal Pradesh and the state government’s perception that the situation was well within their control did away with the need for requisitioning assistance from the Air Force to douse the raging forest fires in the state. In the past, IAF helicopters were called in by the state government several times for combating forest fires.

“The option to call in the IAF is there, but this is the last option when nothing else works. It’s neither cheap nor quickly available,” Rajiv Kumar, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Himachal Pradesh, told The Tribune. Moreover, rainfall over the past week across the state has been about 25 per cent above average for this period, according to data released by the India Meteorological Department. From May 30 to June 6, almost every district in the state received varying amounts of rain, even though it was deficient in some areas.

It’s neither cheap nor quickly available

The option to call in the Air Force is there, but this is the last option when nothing else works. It’s neither cheap nor quickly available. It is used in extreme cases and we did not have fires, which we could not control. —Rajiv Kumar, Principal chief conservator of forests

In the summer of 2022, IAF helicopters were used extensively to control a massive forest fire in Kasauli, which had reached the very edges of the Air Force Station in the township that is an important communications centre.

Dozens of sorties were carried out by the IAF’s Mi-17 helicopters that used underslung bambi buckets to dump hundreds of gallons of water over the flames that spread across several kilometers.

The hills around Kasauli are among the areas that witnessed forest fires this season. Just last month, IAF helicopters were deployed in Uttarakhand for several days for undertaking such a task.

Every year, IAF is called upon by various state governments several times to help combat forest fires. The process involves the civil administration sends its request to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which it turn approaches the Ministry of Defence. The Defence Ministry forwards it to Air Headquarters, from where it flows down to the Command Headquarters, which tasks the operational helicopter unit concerned.