Nagaland: Dzukou fire 'completely extinguished', forces to demobilise

Kohima: After nearly two weeks, state officials have confirmed that the fire in Dzukou valley has been defeated.

Speaking with EastMojo, Rajkumar M, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) said: “the fire in the valley is completely extinguished”. The officer added that no active fire was reported for three days.

He informed that the demobilisation of personnel engaged in fire-fighting at Dzukou has already begun. However, about 30-40 personnel from the state police, forest department and also community volunteers from the Southern Angami Youth Organization (SAYO) will be stationed at the base camp to monitor the valley for a few days in case of any fresh fire.

Rajkumar also informed that the damage assessment is yet to be ascertained. While more details are awaited from the National Remote Sensing centre in Hyderabad, the officer informed that they have also written to the Forest Survey of India (FSI) for assessment of satellite imagery estimation for the damages.

The reports will then be compared with the assessment made by the local survey team, and a proper detailed damage assessment will be made.

Also Read: Watch: Dzukou wildfire ‘in control’, but damage yet to be ascertained

A coordination and debriefing meeting of the Dzukou inferno was conducted under the chairmanship of the home commissioner Abhijit Sinha, IAS, in his office on Monday.

Since there is no fresh fire reported from anywhere in the valley by both the ground and air teams for the past few days, it was decided to request for de-induction of all IAF Helicopters deployed for dousing fires.

The meeting also decided to de-induct five NDRF teams deployed at base camp on Tuesday. As per the meeting, Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) Kohima, Daniel Angami, who is camped at Dzukou base camp, reported that de-induction of ground operation team was conducted at the base camp on Monday.

The India Air Force (IAF) has airlifted the fire-fighting equipment of NDRF and SDRF stationed at Dzukou base camp to the Jakhama Military Helipad. The fire-fighting equipment included NDRF tents, fire-fighting suits, and batteries. The SDRF equipment included two generators, NSDMA lighting tower and batteries. The fire-fighting equipment was also airlifted by one sortie of IAF Helicopter on Monday morning.

The debriefing meeting was attended by Commandant NDRF, Rajesh Thakur; Deputy Commissioner Kohima Mohammed Ali Shihab A; SP Kohima, Manoj Kumar; DFO Kohima, Raj Kumar and ADC Kohima, Lithrongla Tongpi Rutsa.