QUETTA (PEN) : Hundreds of trees and precious herbs were burnt to ashes on Sunday after a fire broke out in the forest of Koh-i-Jandaran, in Barkhan district of Balochistan.
Officials said on Sunday that the fire, which started on Saturday, has spread to 200 square kilometers. The local people, after receiving information about the outbreak of fire in the forest, rushed to the mountain and started efforts to control it.
“The fire damaged flora, trees and affected wildlife in the mountain Jandaran,” an official of the forest department said, adding that authorities have moved the nearby population to safer places.
There were conflicting claims about the area of the forest affected by the fire.
Barkhan Assistant Commissioner Ramzan Ishtiaq said that flames have spread to an area exceeding 100 acres, while District Forest Officer Zubair Kakar said it has spread to over 200 acres.
Locals, district administration and Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were engaged in efforts to bring the fire under control.
A team of Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) also reached the area to help contain the fire.
“Extinguishing the fire is a challenging task as it is on the mountain peak. People living in the area near the fire have been taken to safer places,” Mr Ishtiaq, assistant commissioner of Barkhan, said.
He said that apart from trees, there are vast quantities of dry shrubs which helped in rapid spread of the fire. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined, he said.
Officials, late in the evening, claimed that fire has been brought under control by the PDMA, FC personnel of and local people to a great extent. However, efforts were under way to extinguish it completely on the Jandaran mountain.
The fire initially broke out on the other side of the mountain in uninhabited areas but spread to a large area due to heavy winds.
People of the area said efforts of the government to extinguish the fire started very late and that resulted in damage to a large area of the forest.
Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti took notice of the situation and directed the district administration, the PDMA and other relevant authorities to assist in relief efforts.
PDMA Director General Jahanzeb Khan said that a team from PDMA has reached Barkhan with firefighting equipment and it has started helping local administration in fire extinguishing efforts.
The chief minister expressed satisfaction over timely joint efforts of officials of all departments and the district administration and directed them to establish a base at Barkhan district headquarters.
