Farmers killed as 100 Bush fires raging in Mizoram state in India
Pastor Dale Morgan
Farmers killed as 100 Bush fires raging in Mizoram state in India *
OUR CORRESPONDENT
The Telegraph Calcutta
Silchar, March 16: The Mizoram government has placed its forest and
environment department on alert following the death of four farmers in
bush fires over the past week.
According to official sources, the state government has asked the
department to mobilise volunteers from among peasants and other
villagers to fight the sporadic outbreak of bush fires that swept across
the remote areas of the state bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The principal chief conservator of forests in Mizoram, R.C. Thanga,
today confirmed over phone from Aizawl that a thick pall of smoke had
shrouded the sky for the last three days, almost obliterating the sun.
Thanga said over 100 bush fires were raging on the hill slopes in the
rural areas of the state. He said jhum farmers ignited fire in the
forests to destroy vast swathes of bushland to sow seeds of paddy, the
staple food of the Mizos.The forest chief said the raging fire had
killed four Mizo farmers during the past week.
They were caught in the flames fanned by strong winds sweeping across
the jhum farms on the hills and dales near the villages.
Thanga said yesterday was the deadline for igniting the conflagration in
the hills for facilitating rice cultivation.
The fire will take at weeks to be doused.
Thanga confirmed that the villagers, with the help of forest staff, had
started to clear shrubs and tiny bushes along the “fireline” earmarked
by the village councils beyond which the fire was not allowed to spread.
According to reports reaching to this district headquarters town today,
the villagers staying along the district’s border with Mizoram can see
in the night fire burning in the hills of the adjacent state.
The sky in Cachar district is enveloped by a grey mantle ofsmoke
emanating from Mizoram.