Goa: Navy choppers carry out multiple sorties to douse Mhadei fires

Panaji: Indian Navy helicopters with 'Large Area Aerial Liquid Dispersion Equipment' mounted on them carried out sorties to douse the fires in Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, a defence spokesperson said on Thursday.

These sorties began on Tuesday to douse the fires that have been raging at several places in the sanctuary, located in the north-eastern part of the state along the border with Karnataka, for the past six days.

In a tweet on Wednesday, the Indian Navy's Goa Naval Area said, "Continued efforts towards helping state administration to control the raging forest fires in Goa, the helicopters of #IndianNavy flew multiple missions on 08 Mar and sprayed appx 17 tons of water at Cortalim and Morlem.” Morlem is a part of Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary while Cortalim is the site where a fire was reported on Wednesday.

"Special gear LAALDE (Large Area Aerial Liquid Dispersion Equipment) used by helicopter for this operation was mobilized by Indian Navy from Mumbai and Kochi immediately on receipt of information on 06 Mar from State Forest Dept. More than 26 runs were made over affected areas," the Navy further tweeted.

"The complex operation required picking up of water from nearby water body and releasing it over affected area in difficult terrain. Helicopters of Indian Navy have been undertaking these operations since early hours of 07 Mar in coordination with state authorities," it added.

On Tuesday, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had chaired a State Disaster Management Authority meeting to oversee the situation, while state Forest Minister Vishwajit Rane had claimed the fire was "man-made" and had warned of action under the Forest Act for those violating norms.

His department had also initiated inquiry against forest guards to check if there was any dereliction of duty on their part.