Several trees gutted in Mt Abu forest fire

PALANPUR/MOUNT ABU: A fire broke out in the forest region near Sitaberi village about 12 km from Mount Abu on Monday afternoon. The fire was doused by the team of forest officials led by district forest officer Balaji Kari with in few hours. Several trees and bamboos were gutted in the fire. No one was hurt in the fire.
According to range forest officer (RFO) Mount Abu Bharatsingh Devda the exact reason for the forest fire could not be known. The fire was so huge that the smoke was visible from the hilly station, said the locals.

As many as five firefighters from Abu Road municipality, private factories were pressed into service. Devda told TOI that the fire was brought under control after five in the evening.

The traffic on the road to Mount Abu was not affected as the fire was at some distance from the road.

“The heat was intolerable, however, we could manage to get past it,” Aniket Rawal, a tourist from Deesa in Banaskantha.

The vigilant foresters were prepared for such feral fire flare ups. They had been prepared to deal with such situation since October 2018. They were ready with all the needed equipments for an outbreak of fire anywhere in the 36,000 hectare forest of is Mount Abu.

The fire had started at ground level, where the dry autum leaves lies. The fire left a stretch of charred leaves, because of the timely intervention of the all alert Kari and his team.

To strengthen the moral of the fire fighting foresters, collector of Sirohi, together with his law and order arm, the SP of Sirohi reached there and helped in dousing the flames.