The forest fire which has been raging Dzükou valley along the Nagaland-Manipur border since December 29 last year has finally been extinguished.
A coordination-cum-debriefing meeting held in connection with the incident on Monday appreciated all the agencies concerned for assisting in dousing the forest fire.
The meeting, held under the chairmanship of Nagaland home commissioner Abhijit Sinha in his office in Kohima, was attended by National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) commandant Rajesh Thakur, Kohima deputy commissioner Mohammed Ali Shihab A., superintendent of police Manoj Kumar, divisional forest officer Raj Kumar and additional deputy commissioner Lithrongla Tongpi Rutsa.
Reviewing the entire fire-fighting operation in the valley, the meeting decided that since there is no fresh fire reported from anywhere in the valley both by the ground and air teams for the past few days, it was decided to request for giving instructions for deinducting all the Indian Air Force helicopters deployed for dousing the fire.
The meeting decided that deinduction of five NDRF teams deployed at the base camp in the valley will be carried out from Tuesday.
It was also decided that the Kohima District Executive Force and Forest Department personnel and Southern Angami Youth Organisation volunteers will be stationed at the base camp to keep a watch and monitor the status for another few days.
Kohima sub-divisional officer Daniel Angami reported from the Dzükou base camp that deinduction of ground operation team was conducted at the base camp today.
The IAF today airlifted the fire fighting equipment of NDRF and State Disaster Response Force stationed at the base camp to Jakhama military helipad.
The fire fighting equipment included NDRF tents, fire fighting suits, batteries and state forces’ equipment which included two generators, Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority’s lighting tower and batteries.
The fire-fighting equipment was airlifted by one sortie of an IAF helicopter in the morning.
