Indian Air Force Battles Uttarakhand Forest Blaze, 75 New Fires Reported

MI-17 helicopters moved to the forest division of Tehri district to control the fires by spraying water collected from Shri Kot dam in buckets with a capacity of 5,000 litres, officials said.

Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters doused forest fires at three places in Uttarakhand on Tuesday, even as more broke out at 75 new spots, destroying 105.85 hectares of green cover in the state, officials said. IAF MI-17 helicopters moved to the Kirti Nagar forest division of Tehri district to control the fires by spraying water collected from Shri Kot dam in buckets with a capacity of 5,000 litres, they said. Forest fires were doused in Bariargadh and Sarkyana in Kirti Nagar range and Khirsu in Pauri district on Tuesday, Chief Conservator of Forest Garhwal SK Patnaik, under whose supervision the exercise was carried out, said. The firefighting operation lasted three-and-a-half hours, he said.