Massive wildfire breaks out across Manipur-Nagaland border
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Kohima, Jan 1: Huge wildfire in Dzukou valley located on the Manipur-Nagaland border caused severe damage to the environment. The hills have been burning since Dec 29 and the fire has not brought under control yet. Dzukou Valley is a tourist draw and a trekking destination. Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh made an aerial survey over the Dzukou Valley on Thursday, Dec 31.
A massive forest fire that has been raging the scenic Dzukou Valley along the Nagaland-Manipur since Tuesday has spread to the hills of Manipur on Thursday. The state forest department staff and villagers from Mao area in Manipur’s Senapati district who had been keeping an eye on the fire said it was raging on the Nagaland side till Wednesday.
Manipur CM N Biren Singh's Secretariat said that "As the wildfire was spreading very alarmingly and needed immediate attention before it spread towards Mount Iso, the Chief Minister personally undertook the aerial survey.” After the aerial survey, the CM also demanded for mass help through twitter to tackle the situation. Later, according to the recent updates, the CM has also seeked for help from Home Minister Amit Shah
Just received a call from Hon’ble Union Home Minister Shri @AmitShah Ji to assess and discuss the situation about the wildfire at Dzuko valley. Amit Shah Ji has assured all the necessary assistance from the Home Ministry to contain the situation at earliest.@PMOIndia
— N.Biren Singh (@NBirenSingh) January 1, 2021
The State Government had also requested the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to provide assistance to curb the situation and had also demanded the Assam Rifles to assist fire fighters in order to extinguish the wild fire.
According to Forest Survey of India, 2020, the forests of Chhattisgarh, Mizoran, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha are most vulnerable to forest fires. When a forest fire is detected in India by the MODIS and VIIRS instruments, the information is passed to the Forest Survey of India (FSI). The FSI analyses the data overlaying the digitized boundaries and pinpoints the location to the exact forest department. The Divisional Forest Officer in charge of the forest is then informed about the raging fire.