Forest department under fire for burning plantation in Bhingu

A mock drill conducted by the Forest Department to train staff in fire-fighting techniques went terribly wrong in the Bhingu forest under the Ghumarvi range, as the fire lit for practice engulfed a plantation spread across two bighas.

- AGENCY

Villagers claimed that nearly 1,000 pomegranate and teak plants, raised under the JICA-funded biodiversity conservation project, were destroyed in the blaze. The plantation, nurtured over the last four years by forest lovers of the village, was part of a Palmarosa grass cultivation project meant to generate income through the extraction of aromatic oils. Villagers allege that nearly Rs 25 lakh