Bhubaneswar, Feb. 20: The state government has decided to identify areas in dense forests across the state prone to fires in summer using modern technology.

Principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) Sidhanta Das said: "We will take the help of satellites and identify fire-prone areas in the dense forest. Once the areas are identified, we will ensure that no fire related accident takes place in these areas this time. We will also train our employees to fight the fire."

Summer sets in from the second week of March in the state. In the first phase, the state government has identified a few pockets in the forests where fire accidents can take place at any time.

"We have also constituted 216 fire fighting squads to deal with forest fires in the forthcoming summer," said an official. Sources said that in 2016, nearly 20,667 fire incidents took place in the country in dense forests, gutting lakhs of trees killing hundreds of animals. Of these, the number of fire accidents reported in Odisha was more than 3,000.

"The fire accidents in 2016 were the most compared to the figures of the last five years," an official said.

The highest number of fire-related incidents was reported from Kandhamal at 1,170. This was followed by 630 in Koraput and 323 in Ganjam. Just in March last year, 2,220 fire-related accidents were reported in dense forests.

"Though the number of such accidents in April had come down compared to March last year, it still was a matter of concern. We are hopeful that similar incidents will not take place this time," said an official.

The forests in Odisha have been divided into 50 divisions, 1,017 sections and 3,136 beats.

"We have already deployed 910 officials in 91 forest safety squads and 1,950 officials in the 65 para-forest units," an official said.

The officials said that with the help of the local people, the forest department has formed 12,513 forest protection committees. "These committees have been entrusted with the task of protecting 11,69,748 hectares of forest land. We will create awareness among people not to throw even a cigarette butt in the forest," an official said.