Bhubaneswar: Amid rising forest fires across the State, the Odisha government on Wednesday created a Special Task Force to control the blaze in different forest.
The Task force will work from Panchayat level to control the rising forest fires in the state.
Chief Secretary P K Jena directed the Odisha Disaster Management Authority(OSDMA) to deploy ODRAF teams at possible locations in the forest prone to fire. The Chief secretary chaired a high level meeting which was attended by District collectors, SPs, Divisional Forest Officers and other senior officials through video conference.
The government has decided to reward the panchayats, individuals and other NGOs for informing about forest fires. The District Collectors, SPs and DFOs were asked to keep a vigil on the forest fires in their jurisdictions and seek daily reports from the local Tahasildar, BDO, Police officials and forest officials on the forest fires.
It was decided in the meeting that the government use satellite imagery to identify forest fires. The Chief Secretary also directed the concerned officials to take stringent action against the miscreants responsible for the man-made forest fires. Official sources said so far forest fires have been reported in 23,860 points in the state out of which the fire has been controlled in 98 per cent points.
