Meghnagar (Madhya Pradesh): A group of kids from Meghnagar who went to graze their cattle showed exemplary courage and tried their best to contain a major forest fire in the area.
According to information, the fire was spread over 200 hectares at Meghnagar forest Beat No 63 on Thursday afternoon in Jhabua district, and it was easily visible from the outskirts of the city. The entire incident was first reported around 4 pm.
Kids who were present there informed that they first saw the fire and immediately tried to douse the fire with the resources they had. Some children brought buckets from their houses, while some tried to extinguish the fire by pouring water from a nearby drain.
Some children were troubled by the smoke coming out of the fire. The children did not even have slippers on their feet, but without stopping, they were running here and there to extinguish the fire with Khakhar leaves.
It is not known how the fire began, but due to the delay in putting out the fire, the dry grass in the forest was completely burnt to ashes. Many people who rushed to the spot tried to call administrative and police officials including, SDM Ankita Prajapati, police station in-charge Turansingh Davar, but they did not pick up phones. People also called Dail 101, but the number also did not work.
Later, municipal council CMO Rahul Singh was informed about the incident and along with sending the fire brigade, Thandla and nearby fire brigades were urged to control the fire through water tankers.
When the DFOs were informed about the incident from the spot, they immediately sent the Forest Department team from Jhabua and sent the local forest workers to the forest.
It took them more than 45 minutes to convey the information about the forest fire to administrative authorities. Meghnagar CMO along with the fire brigade began to extinguish the fire in the industrial area at 5:30 pm.
Some youths also joined and tried their best to extinguish the fire, but the blaze was so intense that the entire dry grass of the forest was reduced to ashes.
At 6 pm, forest department's SDO Pradeep Kachhawa, deputy ranger Sukhram Hatila, along with others also reached the spot and engaged themselves in the work of extinguishing the fire. The whole incident witnessed the indomitable courage of children on the one hand and examples of administrative and bureaucratic apathy on the other.
Efforts were on to control the fire till late evening. The forest is spread over 200 hectares, due to which the damage could not be assessed till late evening. A large part of the forest has been damaged by the blaze.
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