Bhubaneswar: Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra has asked the district level officials to initiate measures for containing the forest fire at the earliest.
The Odisha Chief Secretary said that as there is no rain in the state for four months, the dry spell has become responsible for the spread of forest fire. He has directed ODRAF, fire brigade personnel and forest officials to jointly take measures to contain the massive fire on a 24X7 basis.
Mohapatra also asked the officials to rope in eco-club members, volunteers and villagers in the periphery of the forest region to help contain the conflagration.
Besides, the forest officials have been directed to undertake patrolling round the clock and have been asked to report the outbreak of fire in any circle at the earliest to the district administration for taking immediate measures in the direction.
Mohapatra, through the video conference, urged the officials to take stringent action against those persons who are deliberately setting fire to forest resources. He said as many as 6000 persons have been engaged to douse the massive forest fire at different forest locations in the state and added that everything is going as planned.
The video conferencing was attended by Development Commissioner Pradip Kumar Jena, Additional Chief Secretary Dr Mona Sharma, Additional Chief Secretary, Home Sanjeev Chopra, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Sandeep Tripathy, Chief Conservator, Wildlife Shashi Paul and other senior officials.
