Uttarakhand: Committees will be formed to prevent forest fires, 30 thousand rupees will be given, action will be taken at the Gram Panchayat level

Uttarakhand is a forest-rich state. Where about 71 percent of the area is surrounded by forests, but the incidents of forest fire occurring every year in the forests of the state are becoming a serious problem. Because, every year forest property and life are damaged due to forest fire. In such a situation, the Forest Department is emphasizing on public participation to prevent incidents of forest fire.

In this episode, forest fire protection committees will be formed at the Gram Panchayat cluster level. Which will include Gram Pradhan, Forest Panchayat Sarpanch, representatives of Mahila and Yuvak Mangal Dals and personnel of Forest Department, Revenue Department. Under this, incentives will also be given to the committees.

In fact, in the cabinet meeting held on February 12 under the chairmanship of CM Pushkar Dhami, the proposal related to the formation of Gram Panchayat level forest fire protection committees has been approved. According to the information received from the Forest Department, the selection of forest fire safety management committees will be determined on the basis of forest fire risk zonation mapping.

This has been done by deciding the category of highly sensitive/pine dominated forest divisions for forest fire. Under this, the process of formation of committees has been started by identifying 22 forest divisions. The forest fire safety management committees formed in the divisions will be given the responsibility of controlling forest fire by temporarily allocating areas during the forest fire season.

Each committee will be given an incentive of Rs 30,000 annually

For the formation of forest fire protection committees at the Gram Panchayat level and reducing the impact of forest fire, the committee will also be given incentives by the Forest Department. Under which every committee will be given Rs 30,000 as incentive every year.

However, 50 percent of the incentive amount will be given to the committees at the beginning of the forest fire season and the remaining 50 percent amount will be given after the forest fire season after evaluating the forest fire control work of the committee. Not only this, if a forest fire occurs in the areas assigned to the committees during the forest fire season, then the incentive amount will be reduced according to the assessment of the area affected by the forest fire. Every committee will be allotted about 500-600 hectares of forest area.