Chennai, Feb 9 (IANS): The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) will be providing financial assistance to set up a forest fire control centre in Chennai.
An amount of Rs one crore has been sanctioned for setting up the forest fire control station.
The centre will work in coordination with the disaster management authorities in the state. The Department of Environment, Climate Change and Forest has also launched an App to monitor forest fires on a real time basis.
Forest department in a release said that in 2022 nearly 1,500 incidents of forest fires were reported. The department also said that as per the Forest Survey of India, 91 per cent of the large fires were controlled by the Tamil Nadu forest staff.
The state government has also announced a compensation of Rs 25 lakh to the families of department employees who lose their lives while engaging in forest fire dousing operations.