Bhubaneswar, 20 February (H.S.): The state government has taken various steps to extinguish forest fires in the upcoming forest fire season. These forest fire prevention programs are:-A District Action Plan (DAP) is being prepared in each district by November/December, well before the forest fire season, under the chairmanship of the District Collector, which provides necessary assistance from other departments.

Fire lines have been created in the forest interior and forest border areas.

Forest and range level awareness campaigns, information, banners and advertisements of forest awareness programs are being displayed at appropriate places and mock fire drills etc. are being conducted.

A trained fire prevention team has been formed and the required number of fire fighting vehicles, fire extinguishing equipment, fire protection equipment, etc. has been provided for fire fighting.

334 fire protection squads have been formed for fire fighting. Realizing the active participation in fire fighting, assistance is being provided as per the requirements of the Forest Protection Committee (VSS).

Five AI/ML cameras were installed in Similipal last year to detect and send alerts on a real-time basis.

24X7 control rooms have been set up at the state headquarters and forest department offices for fire management.

To receive the forest fire signal (ALERT), the mobile number of the office and the mobile number of the range, section, BIT level staff have been registered with the Forest Survey website.

Forest fire in India is monitored by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun. The Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun connects all the forest fire points with the state. All the fire points are downloaded by the concerned field staff through the OFMS portal on their mobile app. After downloading the points, the deployed forest officer controls the fire and uploads the detailed information along with photographs on the OFMS portal through the OFMS mobile app.

Minister for Forest, Environment and Climate Change Shri Ganesh Ram SingKhuntia presented this information while replying to a question tabled in the Assembly.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Monalisa Panda