NAGALAND: In order to tame the wildfire in the Dzukou Valley on Nagaland-Manipur border, over 3.3 Ton of fire fighting equipment and National Disaster Response Force personal were airlifted to Dzukou Valley, Kohima.
Notably, the battle to douse the wildfire today entered its ninth-day in the famed Dzukou Valley with the fire gaining momentum and moving towards the north side of Dzukou Valley.
It is to be mentioned that multiple mission was carried out by IAF to assist fire fighting and will continue even today.
Sadly on January 6, 2021, an assistant sub-inspector, Nongthombam Binoy Meetei of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), was found dead inside a base camp in the hills near the Dzukou Valley on Tuesday morning in Manipur.
He was deployed at the valley for the ongoing firefighting operation.
The ASI, N Binoy Meetei is a resident of Luwangshangbam Maning Leikai in Manipur's Imphal East District. The cause of the ASI's death is not yet known, the police said.
His body was sent to JNIMS mortuary in Imphal for further procedure. Along with state disaster response force, NDRF teams from Guwahati and police personnel besides volunteers from Mao area have been engaged in firefighting operations in Dzukou valley.
According to the Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority, the damages from the incident are not yet clear. According to reports, the blazing fire in the valley was so huge that it even became visible from the state capital Kohima.
Meanwhile, the allegation from Naga People's Front (NPF) states that it 'can not be considered as a natural disaster but is a man-made fire.'
Further, the NPF in a press release issued through its Press Bureau claimed that "the Dzukou Valley inferno cannot be considered a natural disaster but is a man-made fire that is causing extreme harm to the beauty of the valley as well as to our environment."
Besides a tourist hotspot, Dzukou Valley is also a National asset and is home to various species of flora and fauna and it would profoundly dampen the ecological balance by burning of such forest.