With dry spell, forest fires rage in different areas

Darjeeling: With the continuing dry spell, devastating forest fires have been reported from different parts of the district.

A fire broke out in the wee hours of Friday in the forest area adjacent to the village of Jaubari on the high reaches of the India Nepal border in the Singalila National Parkin the Darjeeling district. The villagers informed the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), deployed on the border. As soon as information was received about fire in the Jaubari village and forest area, Commandant, 36 Battalion SSB Geyzing, Sanjay Sharma, Deputy Commandant and Neeraj Kumar Mishra, Assistant Commandant of Manebhanjyang SSB camp formed a team of 20 personnel under the command of Inspector Prabhunath Yadav and immediately sent the team to the site of the fire stated an SSB source.

In a swift response, the SSB, Forest department team, police and villagers jointly sprang into action to combat the raging forest fire near Jaubari under the Lodhama Police Station.

“The fire, which broke out in the forest area, would have spread to the residential areas of Jaubari, posing a major threat. We thank the SSB for their timely intervention and for helping us,” stated Wangdi Lepcha, Pradhan, Majua Gram Panchayat.

Another forest fire broke out on Thursday in the forest patch near Tindharia Cricket Bazar, above 17th Mile, Tindharia in the Kurseong sub division. Fire tenders from Kurseon reached the area adjacent to National Highway 55 and doused the blaze.

A massive fire also broke out in the Baikunthapur forest in the Dabgram range in the plains near Siliguri.

Firemen battled the blaze for hours trying to bring it under control.

At the time of filing of this report a massive forest fire broke out at Bara Mungwa in the Tukdah block of Darjeeling.