Sundarbans Fire Under Control; Probe Body Formed

The fire, which had raged through Daser Bharani under Sharankhola Range of the  East Forest Division of the Sundarbans for nearly 24 hours since Monday morning, was finally brought under control on Wednesday.

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Mohammad Belayet Hossain said, ''The fire is now under control firefighting units have been working since Tuesday morning to douse the blaze. Anyway, the extent of losses caused by the fire is negligible.''

Abdus Sattar, an officer at Sharankhola Fire Service and Civil Defence, said, ''We've started spraying water around 10:30 am and three units of firefighters from Sharankhola, Mongla and Bagerhat have been working to fully douse the flame.''

The firefighters are taking water from the Morabhola River, two kilometers away from the fire spot.

Meanwhile, the Forest Department formed a three-member probe body with Mohammad Joynal, the chief conservator of the forest of the Sharankhola Range, as its head to probe the fire incident.

The fire broke out at Daser Bharani of the Sundarbans East Forest Division on Monday morning.

According to the officer-in-charge of Sharankhola Fire Service Station Abdus Sattar, "The fire service team had to struggle a lot to control the fire for lack of water. So, we decided to install a 2-km pipeline connecting the site of the fire and the Morabhola River, and finally, we did it.''

On February 8 this year, another fire at Dhansagar station under Chandpai range of the Sundarbans East Division had burnt down at least four decimals of forestland.