Following A Fly For Over 10 hours, IAF Stopped Spread Of Sariska Fire
New Delhi, March 30: The two IAF Mi17 V5 helicopters deployed for Bambi Bucket operations to douse a massive fire inside the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan has finally prevented the blaze from further spreading, the IAF said on Wednesday. “Timely action by the IAF in close coordination with the civil administration and the forest department officials has prevented the fire from spreading any further,” the IAF said.
The choppers flew more than 10 hours on Tuesday dispensing more than 33,500 litres of water over the affected area. Firefighting operations to douse the fire completely have been underway since first light Wednesday, the IAF said. The two Mi17 V5 helicopters were deployed Tuesday at Alwar, Rajasthan in response to a request by the district administration to douse the massive fire spread over large areas in Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan.
Initially, the local administration took help of the locals to control the fire and created a fire line (by digging up a boundary) in the jungles to cease the spread of the fire. Despite those efforts, the fire spread across an over approximately 9 square km of area endangering wildlife and ecology in the sanctuary. The IAF has been instrumental in putting out forest fires in Uttarakhand and the Northeast. The helicopter uses a 5,000 litre Bambi Bucket to collect the water from nearby water bodies and sprays it over the blaze so as to prevent it from spreading further. Forest fires are common across the world during the dry summer months and cause huge loss to nature and life every year. UNI
