Forest fire incidence surges, places state at no 4 in country

WITH mercury level picking up ahead of summer, forest fire incidents have spiked in the last one week in Odisha placing the state at number 4 in terms of maximum wildfire points in the country.

- SUDARSAN MAHARANA @Bhubaneswar

Maximum wildfire cases, sources said, are being reported from forest divisions in the Koraput circle of the state. As per the Forest Survey of India (FSI) statistics, a total of 1,956 fire points have been detected in different divisions of the state so far this year since beginning of the new forest fire season from January 1. However, around 46 per cent of these fire incidents have been recorded in the last seven days between February 12 and 18. Over 120 fire points were detected in different forest divisions in the last 24 hours.