KP CM Directs For Surveillance To Prevent Forest Fires.

Peshawar -- An important meeting regarding the recent fire incidents in various mountains/forests of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa held with Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan in the chair, here on Friday.

The meeting reviewed in details the causes of fire incidents and other related matters, and took a number of important decisions to effectively prevent such incidents in future.

Briefing the participants about the recent incidents of fires, it was informed that a total of 283 incidents of fires were reported in various places across the province in recent days. In majority of cases, fire took place on dry grass and shrubs on land surface, and only 22 trees in designated forests were damaged in the fire incidents across the province.

The meeting decided to formulate a comprehensive strategy for effective prevention of such incidents in future by tightening the relevant laws to punish those who set the mountains/forests on fires intentionally on the basis of personal enmities. It was also decided to constitute committees at district level to keep a vigilant eye on such destructive activities in future.

The committees, to be headed by deputy commissioners, will have representation of police, special branch, Rescue 1122, forest department and district administrations.

The forum further decided to categorise the mountains/forests as high risk, medium risk and low risk areas further deciding that special units of Rescue 1122 would be set up in order to control fires in high-risk areas whereas heavy duty drones would be used to monitor hills and forests as well as to take timely action in case of fire incident there.

The meeting also gave consideration to the purchase of customised aircraft to control fires in remote and inaccessible areas and decided to restore the scientific forest management system. Similarly, it has been decided to devise a mechanism to pull out old wood and dry grass lying in the forests. The meeting was informed that 72percent of the total area...