Yet again, forest fires are raging in the hills surrounding Itanagar. For the last few days, the forest near Chimi village has been burning. The fire started after a man reportedly, while setting his agriculture field on fire, could not contain the fire from spreading beyond his field. A team of officials, led by ADC Shweta Nagarkoti, along with officials of the forest and the fire & emergency services department, and the SDRF, along with local residents visited the area on Thursday to assess the situation. The slight drizzle that Itanagar received on Wednesday night has somewhat helped to stop the spread of the fire.
Every year, during the month of March and April, forest fires hit the Itanagar Capital Region badly. They cause massive damage to the forests nearby. The district administration (DA) has failed to effectively tackle this problem. Whenever forest fires happen, they take some initiative and later, when things settle down, they forget everything. There is no concrete long-term plan, and most of the time the actions are reactive in nature. It is time that a long-term plan is worked out. Forest fire is a very serious issue and needs to be tackled strongly. There should be strong action against people who are behind such fire. Further, large-scale awareness campaigns should be launched to educate the masses about the ill-effects of forest fires and how to prevent them from occurring.