Bhubaneswar: A senior member of the three-member Central team arrived in Bhubaneswar on Thursday to assist the Odisha government in containing the fire that has razed the Similipal biosphere reserve.
Amit Mallick, Inspector General of Forests(IGF) of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) reached the State Capital on Thursday afternoon.
He along with Subrat Mohapatra, Deputy Director-General of Forests (Central) of the ministry’s regional office in Bhubaneswar, who is also a member of the Central team, and Arti Chaudhary, Head, Silviculture –ICFRE (as fire expert) will visit the National Park.
The team is scheduled to assess the situation in the national park, a major part of which is located in Mayurbhanj district. Some of its periphery areas touch neighbouring Keonjhar and Balasore districts.
Acting on the directions of the Union Environment Minister, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change(MoEF&CC) Prakash Javadekar, an expert team has been constituted.
The team would be working till the State attains a normal situation with respect to fire incidents.
