MARGAO
As fire still rages at Dramapur, engulfing the hillock for the last one week, destroying the rich flora and fauna, local residents along with the panchayat members have on Saturday posed a simple question to the authorities “ why have they delayed in adopting the aerial route to bring the fire under control till date?
They also questioned the absence of disaster management officials at the site, pointing out that they have only found a couple of firemen and forest officials at the site.
After the fire brigade along with volunteers returned down from the hillock at around 1.30 am on Saturday after another round of fire-fighting, Dramapur Sarpanch Avita Pereira and members of the Village Development Committee and residents questioned the delay in launching a comprehensive fire-fighting operation by deploying aerial methods, including helicopters to douse the inferno.
“It’s now days since fire has engulfed the Dramapur hillock. The firemen have tried to bring the fire under control, but in vain. We have been demanding that the authorities adopt the aerial methods, by deploying helicopters to bring the fire under control but nobody is supporting our view,” she said.
The sarpanch added: “The forest officials have also come at the site, but they find it difficult to make it to the hillock. We have been coordinating with the firemen and the forest officials, but they push the buck on each other to requisition helicopters to bring the fire under control.”
A visibly agitated Dramapur VDC convenor Maria Sequeira slammed the authorities, including the disaster management team for their failure to take proactive steps to bring the fire under control. “For eight days now, the Dramapur hillock has been under fire, but there’s no response to our plea to deploy helicopters to douse the fire. At the meetings of the Bio-diversity management committee, they give loud talks, but they have no wherewithal to handle ground reality,” Maria said.
Reminding that bio-diversity is part of human living, she said that it is the duty and responsibility of the people and the authorities to preserve the rich diversity, demanding to know from Forest Minister Vishwajit Rane why the disaster management authorities have failed to deploy aerial methods to douse the fire at Dramapur.
A team of fire officials led by Fire Officer Gill D’Sa had returned back from the Dramapur hillock at around 1.30 am on Saturday. The fire resurfaced on the hillock after dawn and local residents fear that the fire will spread to new areas in the evening if measures are not taken to cap the fire.
