A massive forest fire sweeping through the dense foliage in the mountains of Uttarakhand, since the last 60 hours, has gutted over 108 hectare of forest land in the State. With a forest fire reaching the vicinity of an Air Force Station near Nanda range, Indian Air Force activated its aerial fire fighting capability and deployed a Mi-17 V5 helicopter to douse the fire through Bambi Bucket Operations.
The Indian Army too has deployed two columns for fire fighting in Kumaon, on the request of the forest department.
Talking to The Hindu, District Forest Officer (DFO) Nainital, Chandra Shekhar Joshi informed that the forest fire was firstly reported earlier this week in the Nanda range which later spread downwards reaching IAF establishment.
