Dehradun: The National Disaster Response Force on Sunday said that fire has been controlled in 70 per cent of the 427 affected locations even as the army, the air force, 3 NDRF teams and 6,000 firefighters worked relentlessly to save the forest covers.
"We have been informed that fresh images from satellite has shown that the effective area under fire in Uttarakhand has come down to 110-115 locations from the earlier about 427.
"It is expected that these figures will be brought down to 50-60 in the next few days by the combined forces fighting to douse the jungle fire," NDRF Director General O P Singh told PTI.
The air force flew three helicopters on Sunday to contain raging forest fires in Uttarakhand, which have gutted more than 2,300 hectares of lush Himalayan forestland over the past fortnight and claimed at least seven lives.
The Mi 17 chopper, which has a capacity to carry 3,000 litres of water, is collecting water from Bhimtal lake and making sorties over Almakhan, Kilbari and Nalena areas of Nainital district to douse the fires, Principal Conservator of Forest(PCF) and nodal officer BP Gupta said.
However, another IAF chopper engaged for the same purpose in Pauri has not been able to take off due to low visibility, Pauri district magistrate Chandrasekhar Bhatt said.
The chopper has collected water from Shrinagar dam but will make a sortie over areas where fires are active only when visibility improves, he said.
The air support helped the field teams of firefighters from the state forest and fire departments, army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and village volunteers.
Home minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the situation in Delhi and held discussions with chief secretary and other officials of Uttarakhand government. He also offered all assistance from the Centre.
As the Centre's handling of the forest fires came under attack from the Congress, Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar said the government is taking the incident "very seriously" and making all efforts to control it.
