uttarakhand fire
Eight forest workers were caught in a fire in Almora district of Uttarakhand and four of them died. The treatment of four forest workers who were seriously burnt in the fire in Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary of Civil Soyam Forest Division is going on. Forest Divisional Officer of Civil Soyam, Dhruv Singh Martolia said that this incident happened at around 3:45 in the afternoon, when a team of eight forest workers reached the spot to extinguish the fire after getting information about it in the wildlife sanctuary.
He said that as soon as the team got down from the vehicle, the flames of fire increased with the strong wind and engulfed them as well, due to which four forest workers died on the spot. Martolia said that those who lost their lives in this accident include Binsar Range forest ‘beat’ officer Trilok Singh Mehta, ‘fire watcher’ Karan Arya, Provincial Armed Constabulary Jawan Puran Singh and daily wage worker Diwan Ram.
CM Dhami announced compensation
According to the forest officer, the people who were seriously burnt in the forest fire have been identified as ‘fire watcher’ Krishna Kumar, Provincial Armed Constabulary Jawan Kundan Singh Negi, daily wage worker Kailash Bhatt and driver Bhagwat Singh Bhoj. He said that the injured were advised to be taken to Haldwani Base Hospital for better treatment. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has expressed deep grief over the incident and directed the officials to provide better treatment to the injured. He has also asked to give an ex-gratia amount of Rs 10 lakh each to the families of each deceased forest worker.
post mortem of the dead
Describing the incident as ‘extremely heartbreaking’, the Chief Minister said that the Uttarakhand government stands with the families of the forest workers in this hour of grief. He also instructed to airlift the injured forest workers to Rishikesh AIIMS for treatment if needed. Chief Minister’s Special Secretary Parag Madhukar Dhakate said that the situation is being monitored closely. He said that the post-mortem of the deceased is being conducted today itself.
Seven cases of arson in 24 hours
Last month, a resin factory in Almora district was engulfed in forest fire and three workers trying to extinguish the fire were killed. Due to hot and dry weather, forest fires have started raging again in Uttarakhand. According to the Uttarakhand forest fire bulletin, seven incidents were reported in the last 24 hours in which 4.50 hectares of forest was affected.
(Input-PTI language)
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