Bhubaneswar: Incidents of forest fire were reported from at least 533 different locations of Odisha in the last seven days, which is the highest number of wildfires that have taken place in the country during the same period, a report issued by Forest Survey of India (FSI) in this regard said today.

Out of the 533 forest fire incidents reported in the State, about 23 are said to be major ones.

However, Karnataka is in the first position followed by Odisha in the forest fires that were detected starting November 1, 2022 till date. Odisha would soon find itself at the top due to the increasing rate at which new incidents are being reported every day in the State, senior IFS officer and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Debidutta Biswal stated while briefing mediapersons here.

Forest fires were detected in about 95 places in the State today. Including Similipal, the forests in Baliguda, Phulbani and Sundargarh are more prone to fire. The department is vigilant on the recent developments and efforts are on to put a check on man-made forest fires, the PCCF expressed.

As of January 24, as many as 695 forest fire incidents were detected in Odisha and it reached 1,695 today as compared to 1,899 incidents detected in Karnataka during the same period. A maximum number of forest fires occurred in the Koraput forest circle of Odisha this year, the FSI report mentioned.

January 24 witnessed this year’s maximum number of forest fires in a single day in the country.