Efforts intensified to control forest fire in Uttarakhand's Chamoli area surveyed by helicopter

     Gopeshwar, Jan 14 (PTI) Efforts to extinguish the forest fire raging for the past five days in the Nanda Devi Wildlife Forest Division in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district were intensified on Wednesday, with the affected area surveyed by a helicopter, an official said.
     Sarvesh Dubey, Divisional Forest Officer of the Badrinath Forest Division, who is overseeing fire control operations, however, clarified that the option of using helicopters to drop water on the fire would not be adopted.
     Dubey said the helicopter was used only for aerial survey. Water bombing was not practical as the aircraft would have to travel to Tehri Lake to refill and would be able to drop only about 1,200 litres of water in an hour.
     He said a team of officers and employees of the forest division has reached the fire site in the Pulna and Bhyundar areas of the Pushpavati Valley under the Govindghat Forest Range, and efforts are being made to douse the flames.
     It may take at least two days to completely bring the fire under control, he added.
     Dubey said the operation is challenging as the fire-affected area is extremely rocky and inaccessible.
     He, however, clarified that the fire is outside the boundaries of the Valley of Flowers National Park. The Lakshman Ganga and Pushpavati rivers flow on either side of the affected area and are naturally acting as firebreaks, reducing the likelihood of the fire spreading to the Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib.
     The aerial distance from the forest fire site to the Valley of Flowers National Park is around seven kilometres, while the ground distance is about 22 to 25 kilometres, and the park area is completely safe, he said.
     The forest fire has been active since January 9, and the Forest Department, district administration and Disaster Management Department have been continuously making efforts to control it.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)