No respite in sight, officials say possible to douse only by Monday

PANAJI: Notwithstanding a brave front put up by forest minister Vishwajit Rane with two-hourly updates on forest fires on Thursday after six days of continuous burning, forest officials see no respite from it at least for the next few days.
Officials estimate that it could take till Monday to put out the wildfires due to remote locations and steep incline. “For six days, the fires have been continuing and we have been able to partially bring it under control. Under these circumstances, if no new fire breaks out, we hope that we may be able to douse it by early next week,” officials said.
Rane said that the forest department has “commissioned an investigation” to identify the cause of the fire at each location. The forest department has sought an impact assessment by March 14 and has also issued directions to its officers to increase vigilance and prevent tourists and locals from entering the protected forests.
“With the combined efforts of a team from forest, fire department and local residents, as well as aerial efforts by IAF and Indian Navy helicopters, the intensity of all the active fires has been reduced,” said Rane.
Giving an update at 10pm, Rane said the number of active forest fires had come down to five, while three had been doused.
The forest department has formed a dedicated control room to monitor the fires and has appointed deputy conservator of forests to monitor various forest sectors.
“I had a thorough discussion with acting additional principal chief conservator of forests Saurabh Kumar regarding the present scenario of forest fires that have consumed various hills. Strong winds have caused the fire to flare up,” said Rane.
Efforts to put out the fires had paid off to some extent by early Thursday morning with just three active fires noticed in the forests. However, the relief was short lived. By midday strong winds caused the fire to spread. Fires have cropped up at Netravali, Dharbandora, Kalay, Anmod Ghat and other areas. Forest officials are counting on a drop in temperatures and rainfall in the coming week to bring some respite.
The state has deployed around 800 personnel to battle the fires, including about 50 people in a remote area near Mollem.
To try and get a better idea about the persistent fires and grasp the situation, chief secretary Puneet Kumar Goel, who is also the principal secretary for forests, principal chief conservator of forests Rajiv Gupta and Kumar undertook an aerial survey over the affected areas.
“There are no new fires and our teams are on the ground there. It is no longer alarming,” said one of the officials. “We wanted to assess the area impacted. We found that Satre, Dharbandora, Sigao and Derodem are the areas where the impact is higher.”
Naval and air force helicopters continued to fly firefighting missions, using the Bambi Bucket to dump water on the fires. The IAF’s Mi-17 helicopter with an underslung Bambi Bucket joined the efforts, pouring almost 22,000 litres of water on the fire affected areas.
“The IAF is coordinating closely with the Indian Navy and the civil administration in this regard,” said a statement issued by the IAF.
“Right now, the priority is dousing of fire. Once that is done, we will get into impact assessment and damage assessment,” said a senior official from the forest department.