Nagpur: Even as chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has released Rs 1 lakh of the promised Rs 5 lakh to next of kin of each victim of Nagzira forest fire, three honorary wildlife wardens (HWLWs) from Gondia-Bhandara have demanded a transparent probe in the incident and strict action against those responsible.
HWLWs Sawan Bahekar and Mukund Dhurve (Gondia) and Pervez Shahid Khan (Bhandara) in a memorandum to the chief minister and PCCF (wildlife) have reported that the three victims Rakesh Madavi (25) of Thadezari, Rekhchand Rane (45) of Dhanori, and Sachin Shrirange (22) of Kosamtondi, were carrying fire-blowers and were caught in the fire.
“The blast arising out of the blowers that are operated on fossil fuel caused the death of the three van majoors who were on a hill and could not escape as they were surrounded by the fire from all sides. Some labourers also tried to climb up a tree but one of them fell down and died,” says the memorandum.
The HWLWs have said these van majoors should be declared martyrs and there should be check on quality of fire blowers procured by the park. The victims were engaged in dousing the fire without any safety gear like boots or firefighter jackets or trousers. There was no first aid or medical kit with the groups. Henceforth, this gear should be made mandatory.
HWLW Bahekar alleged the fire was manmade and it could be the handiwork of tendu contractors. As per rules, no tendu units or collection centres are allowed within three km from the park. This fact should be probed whether the fire was 3km from the tendu unit and if necessary action should be taken against the contractor.
“It has been proved time and again that forest fires occur ahead of tendu and mahua collection season. As national parks and sanctuaries are vulnerable, no tendu collection should be allowed within 5km radius of the park boundaries. Rules should be amended,” said Bahekar.
On the issue of inquiry, M Ramanujam, conservator of forests (CF) and field director, NNTR, said, “We have not yet started any inquiry as there were more fires reported in the last two days in the adjoining compartments. Secondly, of the Rs 5 lakh assistance to each of victims’ kin announced by the chief minister on Friday, Rs 3 lakh has been released to the Gondia collector from CM Relief Fund.”
“The balance Rs 4 lakh each will be released after we submit copies of the police panchnama, post-mortem report, death certificate, and other papers to the state government. The Rs 4 lakh assistance will be released under State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF),” said Ramanujam.