Bhubaneswar: Amid the soaring mercury levels, 109 fire points were detected in different forest divisions across Odisha between February 22 and February 23.
According to the statistics of the Forest Survey of India (FSI), over 60 fire points have been detected in Koraput circle in Nabarangpur division and the remaining in Bhubaneswar, Angul, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Baripada, Berhampur and Bhawanipatna circles under different forest divisions. Among them, one at Ghona beat of Raigarh range in Nabarangpur division and the other at Harachandi beat of Brahmagiri range in Puri wildlife division were large fire points, Forest Department sources said.
Sources further said that the district fire prevention and management action plan 2024-25 have already been readied to check incidents of forest fire in the current season. The divisional forest officers have been asked to maintain adequate fire lines in vulnerable forests and also continue to create awareness among community members to prevent such mishaps.
Usually, fire fighters construct a fire line at a distance from the fire and burnout the area between it and the fire, depriving the main fire of fuel.
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Last year, 9,711.69 hectare of land in the was damaged in 36,713 forest fire incidents during the wildfire season that continued for six months till June. Odisha had recorded 871 large forest fires between November 2022 and March 2023, the beginning of the forest fire seasons, after a prolonged dry spell. Among them, 642 large fire incidents were from March 2-9, 2023, the highest in the country during the period, according to FSI data.
The state received around Rs 1.47 crore so far from the Centre in 2023-24 fiscal towards management of forest fire, while officials in the Forest department said funds from CAMPA and other sources are also diverted for forest fire management every year.
