Darjeeling, April 25: Three forest fires were reported from near Darjeeling yesterday, taking the number of such blaze since April 1 to 11.
Although forest
fires are common in the hills during summers, sources said so many
incidents in such a short span of time have not been recorded in over a
decade.
Yesterday evening,
a fire broke out below Shruberry Nightangle Park at a lope between Raj
Bhawan and Richmond Hill, where the chief minister stays while in
Darjeeling. Richmond Hill is about 100m from the district magistrate’s
home.
“The fire seems to
have started in the evening. It was going out of control and we called
the army around 8pm,” said Darjeeling DM Puneet Yadav.
The fire was brought under control around midnight.
Kamal Pradhan,
officer in-charge of Darjeeling fire station, said another fire was
reported around 10.40pm near Dali. “It was controlled well past
midnight,” he said.
Another fire broke
out at Ambootia tea garden in Kurseong subdivision yesterday. “It was
put out in two-three hours. There was no loss of life or property,” said
Anil Bansal, director (plantations), Ambootia Tea Group. “The fire
destroyed around 5,000sqft of forest in the garden,” said an official of
Kurseong fire station.
Sources at the
fire station said nine forest fires had been reported in Kurseong
subdivision in April, from places like Tindharia and Sepoydhura, and two
in Darjeeling.
Bansal said in the
last week, fire broke out in two other gardens of the group, Sepoydhura
and Norbung. “Sepoydhura reported two forest fires,” he said. The blaze
destroyed 6,000 bushes in the two estates. “Only rains can save us.”
Although
Darjeeling hills have been witnessing sporadic rains, the last was on
Saturday, the hills are mostly dry India Meteorology Department sources
said Darjeeling recorded 22.4 degrees Celsius and 12.4 degrees Celsius
as the maximum and minimum temperature between 8.30am yesterday and
8.30am today.
Malda blaze
Sixteen huts were gutted in a fire in Dakshin Chandipur village in Malda’s Habibpur on Friday morning.
Police sources
said around 11am, the fire started from the kitchen in a hut. Two fire
engines from Malda doused the flames. Eleven families have been
affected. “I have given instructions to provide tarpaulin and dry food
to them,” said MD Sharad Dwivedi.(TT)