India's disaster management authority to conduct mock drill to improve forest fire preparedness

India's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is all set to conduct a mock exercise on forest fires in northern state of Uttarakhand to improve its preparedness and response mechanism, officials said Tuesday.

The mock drill, first of its kind, will be held on Thursday.

"This exercise will be conducted on the principle of Incident Response System (IRS), which identifies stakeholders and clearly attributes roles and responsibilities to each one of them. It will enhance preparedness and ensure a swift response by reducing confusion and chaos," a government spokesman said.

Senior officials from army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), forest, health, police, firefighting, civil defense, transport, electricity, public relations are participating in the exercise.

The exercise according to disaster management experts would help in filling gaps, ensuring better communication and improving coordination among various stakeholder agencies during the contingency.

"The mock exercise will be part of a three-day event which will begin with a co-ordination conference today followed by a table-top exercise on Wednesday," the spokesman said.

"Officials from other districts will attend these preparatory meetings through videoconferencing from Dehradun city, the capital of Uttarakhand," he added.

Currently Indian officials are struggling hard to contain a forest fire near Mount Abu in western state of Rajasthan.

The authorities have sought help from the India army whose choppers fitted with bambi-buckets take regular sorties and sprinkling water in the affected areas to douse the ranging flames.

Last year a massive forest fire killed seven people in Uttarakhand and damaged huge stretches of forest cover in the state.

Officials said the exercise would also generate awareness among the local population about the precautions to be followed to prevent and respond to a forest fires. Endit