Balangir: Officials of the forest division are gearing up to fight the forest fire reported from various parts of the district. Fire dousing squads and other field employees are taking care to ensure that there is no casualty to life and property.

A training camp has been arranged for the members of the fire dousing squads on March 14 to help them to learn the use fire extinguishers.

Divisional forest officer of Balangir Sameer Kumar Satapathy said the forest department was adequately prepared to take any challenge arising out of forest fire in Balangir division.

Balangir forest division boasts of 1110sqkm of forest area, which forms 109 reserve forests. The forest is home to several minor forest products, including mohua and tendu leaf. The Balangir division has 11 ranges. At present, forest fire is reported from several parts of the division posing threat to the life of the wild animals apart from forest wealth.

Most of the forest fires are man made. It is caused when people light fire to clean the surface of the forest to collect mohua or during the plucking of tendu leaves. The fire eventually spreads in the forest. The Bagdunguri teak forest under the Loisingha range has been burning since Sunday. Teak trees worth lakhs of rupees have been destroyed. Villagers of nearby Sahajchhapar said forest fire had become a routine affair. "Many intentionally set the fire to steal mohua flowers from the forest or smuggle timbers from the Bagdunguri forest," said villager Umakanta Bag.

A source in the forest department said the service of satellites was accessed to know the location of forest fire. Modis and Snap are the two satellites which provide information about such incident.