Blazing Fire Engulfs Forests In Uttarakhand

As Uttarakhand burns, fire fighters and people across the state are looking towards the skies for some sort of divine intervention.

Union minister Prakash Javadekar today said over the last one month, around 1,200 fires have broken out in Uttarakhand alone.

Satellites pictures, released by ISRO at 2 pm today, of raging forest fires in Uttarakhand show locations that have active fires.

Active forest fires in Uttarakhand have grown in the last 24 hours.

The entire northern hill region has active fire locations that have been captured through satellite images.

As Uttarakhand forest fires continue to rage, Indian Air Force's MI-17 helicopters are now being used to spray water on affected areas.

Helicopters at Pauri and Bhawali helipads have been positioned to carry water to forests destroyed by fires.

Indian Air Force's MI-17 lifts water from Bhimtal lake in Nainital district.

MI-17 helicopters will drop water in affected areas to douse flames.

In Garhwal's Srinagar, IAF's 11-member team begins fire fighting operations to put out Uttarakhand forest fires today.

Three NDRF teams and one SDRF company have been sent to fight forest fires and conduct rescue operations in Uttarakhand.

The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests said the scale of forest fires in Uttarakhand this time has been bigger due to little or no rain.

Since early February, 922 incidents of forest fire in the state have been reported. Seven people have died in these fires.

Pauri, Tehri and Nainital are the worst hit by these fires.

The governor has doubled the number of personnel deployed from 3,000 to 6,000 to control the fire.

Forest fires normally begin by February 15 but this time they began on February 2.