Nearly a week after a forest fire started raging in the Madukkarai forest range of Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore, an Indian Air Force (IAF) chopper was pressed into service on Sunday, April 16. The forest fire started on April 11, and continued to blaze. The fire and rescue team had doused some areas but could not extinguish it fully as they could not climb the steep hills. Hence, the Forest Department and Fire Department sought the services of the IAF helicopter.
The IAF chopper has done seven sorties since morning on Sunday and doused 10 hectares of fire. It carried 3,000 litres of water in each sortie, lifted from the Malampuzha dam in Kerala. Forest Department officials told IANS that the IAF chopper would fly more sorties till evening and douse fire in more areas.
Coimbatore District Collector Kranthi Kumar Pati and senior Forest Department officials have been overseeing the operation of the IAF chopper in dousing the forest fire that was threatening the entire forest area of Madukkarai forest range. The dry grass in the forest area had caught fire during heavy summer and was coming down the steep hills like burning fireballs leading to the fire's spread.