Meeting with Forest Fire Advisory Committee Held

 With the advent of the summer season, where the incidences of forest fires are usually common between March and July in Tirumala, TTD has geared up to face the challenges if any.

 

A review meeting with the Forest and TTD officials was held by the TTD Additional EO Sri AV Dharma Reddy at Annamaiah Bhavan in Tirumala on Friday. Addressing the meeting, the Additional EO said, after a series of Forest Fire accidents in Tirumala forests that fall under the purview of TTD, a committee with the Additional EO as the Chairman and DFO as member Convenor with experts has been constituted to counter action and arrest such fire mishaps in the deep woods. 

 

He said in the last one decade about 50-forest fire incidents have taken place with a maximum of 14 being registered in 2016. The Additional EO said a comprehensive action plan was prepared which included zoning of forest areas based on fire vulnerabilities, formation of control lines, deployment and training of forest teams, latest fire fighting gadgets with advanced technology, long-term measures to improve bio-diversity etc.

 

AP State Bio-diversity Chairman Sri BMK Reddy and retired CCF Sri N Chandramohan Reddy who participated in the meeting virtually made some valuable suggestions which included mapping of forest zones with the help of FSI, floristic and faunal inventories to assess the standing growth and bio-diversity of TTD forests, soil and moisture conservation mechanism. He also appreciated TTD's decision to replace Acacia auriculiformis with fruit, nectar, and fruit yielding plants in about 582 hectares of land at Rs.32crores.

 

Earlier, TTD Forest Officer Sri Srinivasulu Reddy, briefed on the TTD forest cover in Seshachala ranges and the forest fire arresting techniques being used by TTD both in Tirumala and also in Tirupati, manpower etc. Through Power Point presentation.

 

The Additional EO also directed the DFO to take the expert advice to improve the aves population in Tirumala by effectively taking up bio-diversity initiatives.

 

District Forest officials Sri Nageswara Rao, Sri Pavan Kumar, Smt Hima Sailaja were also present.