Three forest staff burnt to death in wildfire in Kerala

Three forest department officials were burnt to death during a bid to douse a wildfire at Thrissur district in central Kerala on Sunday evening.

According to sources, tribal forest watcher Divakaran, 43, and temporary watch men Velayudhan, 54, and Sankaran, 48, died in the incident that took place on Sunday evening. Another forest officials suffered burns, said the local police.

They were part of an around ten member team that was dousing the wild fire in a plantation in the forest areas at Desamangalam, about 30 kilometres from Thrissur town, by around 6 pm. The fire immediately engulfed the area and the forest officials got trapped in it. It took several hours to bring the fire under control. There were allegations that it was man made disaster only, said the police.