NDRF trains and deploys its first batch of forest fire fighting teams

'Three teams of 50 people each are now deployed with our first battalion based in Guwahati, 10th battalion located in Vijaywada and the battalion number 15 in Uttarakhand,' said NDRF Director General Atul Karwal.

New Delhi: NDRF Director General Atul Karwal has said the force has trained and deployed the first contingent of its 150 responders who can undertake forest fire combat operations even as it has also sought the Union Home Ministry's permission to get them further skilled in the domain from a foreign country.

A parliamentary panel had in 2022 expressed its concern over forest fires not being officially a part of disasters tackled by the specialised national force.

"The forest fire fighting teams are trained now and we are equipping them. Three teams of 50 people each are now deployed with our first battalion based in Guwahati, 10th battalion located in Vijaywada and the battalion number 15 in Uttarakhand,' Karwal told PTI during an interview.

"A fourth such team is under training currently and it will be designated as a reserve unit," he added.

Karwal said, "We are also coordinating and requesting the ministry of home affairs (MHA) to get them trained aboard, in countries which suffer from this disaster the most. We can learn from them how to tackle the forest fires effectively."

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) official said the force will undertake fire extinguishing operations, drawing the 'fire line' in the forest to contain the spiralling inferno and help in the rescue of the people, who are trapped in this disaster that can either be man-made or natural.

Forest fires, a parliamentary panel had said, is a growing threat globally now.

The incidents of forest fires not only damage the forest resources but also damage the biodiversity, cause climate change, adversely impact tribal livelihood and lead to severe distress among flora and fauna of forests, the panel had said.

In view of the increase of these incidents in the country, it had said the forest fires should be 'expeditiously' added to the list of disasters tackled by the NDRF.

"Due to the limited capacity of forest department to fight huge forest fires, it is high time that the same is tackled by a highly trained force on disasters," it had said.

The panel's recommendation came in the backdrop of the massive fire that erupted in the forests of Dzukou valley, Nagaland in 2021. Similar incidents were reported from Similipal (Odisha) and Bandhavgarh (Madhya Pradesh) tiger reserves in the same year.

As per a forest survey of India report, forest fires are a regular phenomenon in our country often observed during summers and more than four lakh incidents of forest fire were reported in the country between November 2020 and June 2021.

54.40 per cent of forests in India are exposed to occasional fires, 7.49 per cent to moderately frequent fires and 2.40 per cent to high incidence levels while 35.71 per cent of India's forests have not yet been exposed to fires of any real significance, the report said.

Precious forest resources, including carbon locked in the biomass is lost due to forest fires every year, which adversely impact the flow of goods and services from forests, it said.

The Forest Survey of India (FSI) is an organisation under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and its principal mandate is to conduct survey and assessment of forest resources in the country.

The NDRF was raised in 2006 as a federal contingency and disaster response force and at present it has a strength of more than 18,000 men and women rescuers deployed across the country as part of 16 battalions and 28 RRCs.

It undertakes operations to mitigate and combat man-made and natural disasters like earthquakes, floods and train accidents etc.