Bhubaneswar: A total of 26 fire alerts were received in Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district on Wednesday and all were immediately attended and the blaze effectively doused.
Giving this information on his X handle, PCCF (Wildlife) Susanta Nanda said that the field staff and ODRAF team attended all the points and extinguished the fire.
‘Wildlife wing received 26 fire alerts in the Sanctuaries today. Happy to inform that our field staff with ODRAF, attended to all the points and have extinguished them. Salutations,” the PCCF wrote.
More than 170 fire points had been doused till Tuesday. The PCCF was present in the STR for on-the-spot assessment of forest fire.
In another post on X earlier, he said, “Was inside Simlipal Tiger Reserve for on-the-spot assessment of forest fire. Core not affected at all. 170 plus fire points in buffer till date have been doused. No fire points today. That gave time for the next best thing. Spent time with STPF. One of its kind in the country.”
It may be noted here that the state government has deputed ODRAF teams for forest fire response duty in the state. Seven ODRAF teams were deployed in seven vulnerable forest divisions.