One day after the flames advanced to the High Court Colony in the Pines area, an IAF helicopter was called into action on Saturday to put out the fierce forest fires in Uttarakhand’s Nainital district.

Authorities reacted after the fire got dangerously close to the colony’s homes and an Army cantonment about five kilometers from the Pines.

A Mi-17 V5 helicopter was sent in to help with the firefighting efforts, according to the Indian Air Force.

“As a forest fire grew close to an Air Force Station in the Nainital area, the #IAF used a Mi-17 V5 helicopter to conduct Bambi Bucket Operations and activated its aerial fire fighting capability,” the statement on ‘X’ read.
According to forest officials, the water from the Naini and Bhimtal lakes was gathered by the helicopter and then dumped onto the burning forests in the Pines, Bhumiadhar, Jyolikot, Narayan Nagar, Bhawali, Ramgarh, and Mukteshwar areas. The water was collected in a Bambi bucket. At a time, the bucket can hold up to 5,000 liters of water.

According to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, every attempt is being made to contain the fires. Along with representatives of the Kumaon division at the Forest Training Academy in Haldwani, Dhami conducted an aerial survey of the impacted areas and evaluated the efforts made thus far to put out the fires.

He gave strict instructions, saying that only serious illnesses would be excused from the requirement that forest officers not be allowed to take leave until the forest fires were entirely contained.

Dhami stated that the Army is also cooperating and gave orders to take action against those found guilty of igniting forest fires.