Forest minister, Gobind Singh Thakur on Thursday said forest fires have caused financial losses to the tune of around Rs Six Crore in Himachal Pradesh from 2014 to 2017.

Replying to a question by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Chintpurni, Balbir Singh in the state Assembly, the minister said 3,200 incidents of forest fires occurred during the last three years, affecting around 32,000 hectares of area in Himachal Pradesh.

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The minister said intensive mass contact is being undertaken in the state in fire season to create awareness among people, school children, Panchayats, NGOs etc. about damage caused by forest fires to the forestry resources and environment, and their role in combating the forest-fires and protecting the national wealth.

He said the satellite-based Fire Alert Messaging System as developed by Forest Survey of India (FSI) is being adopted in the state.

“The fire incidents observed by satellites are conveyed through SMS messages up to Beat In charge level. More than 1,900 forest personnel are registered to receive the SMS alerts. The system enables early information of forest-fire incidents and quick response,” he said.

Thakur said the forest beats have been categorised as highly sensitive, medium sensitive and low sensitive to forest fires and fire-watchers are deployed accordingly. He said the fire watchers are engaged in every fire-season (15 April-30 June) to take due control measures of incidents of fire.

“Before every fire season, fire-lines are maintained and created as per budget availability. Teams of field staff are constituted and local people are also mobilised to quickly respond for combating forest fires,” he said.

Intervening in reply to a question by Congress member from Kinnaur, Jagat Singh Negi on the government’s decision to make Deputy Commissioner as chairman of Local Area Development Committees (LADC) to utilise Local Area Development Fund of hydro projects instead of the earlier provision of MLA heading it, CM, Jai Ram Thakur said the government takes the institution of MLAs as most important.

He said the Congress MLA was now objecting to the DC heading the LADC in Kinnaur. “However, in previous Congress government, the Lahaul Spiti MLA, who was from Congress party only, was not made the chairman of the LADC.”

Thakur alleged that the BJP MLAs were hurt repeatedly in the previous Congress tenure as the Congress leaders, who were defeated in Assembly polls were given more precedence in government functions. “But the present government will give due respect to all the MLAs,” he said.