The Union government with assistance of the World Bank has allotted Rs 500 crore to the state as part of a five-year project to tackle forest fires in the region.
Talking to mediapersons here today, Director General, Forests, Dr SS Negi said the project would take stock of all aspects of preparations linked to tackling forest fires in the region. He said the issue of lack of manpower that had been a major challenge in dealing with forest fire would be taken care of under the project. Modern technology and tools and real time monitoring would also be part of the project, he added.
Dr Negi said experts from Indonesia and Brazil with a vast experience in tackling forest fires would share their valuable expertise with the state.
The Director General said that the Centre was rendering all possible assistance to the state to tackle forest fires.
Meanwhile, the state forest authorities have taken a slew of measures to check forest fires. Apart from constructions of watch towers for timely detection of forest fires, fire watchers have been deployed, new fire lines that check spread of forest fires from one forest area to another have been established and the earlier one cleared. Involvement of local communities has also been ensured.