Tamil Nadu: IAF chopper, forest department get closer to dousing forest fire
'Bambi bucket' operations
The forest fire that has been raging for almost a week in the Madukkarai forest area in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, has been restricted to a limited patch as of Monday morning, said a top government official.
According to Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary, Environment, Climate Change and Forests, Govt of Tamil Nadu, the 200-member ground team carried out firefighting efforts through Sunday night and managed to restrict it to a limited patch. This comes a day after the Indian Air Force deployed its Russian-origin Mi-17 multi-role helicopter to aid the firefighting efforts.
On Sunday, an IAF chopper from the Sulur Air Force Station in Coimbatore was tasked to offer assistance to the civil administration and had undertaken 'Bambi bucket' operations.
As part of this, the chopper carries an underslung bucket and fills it by dunking it into a water body. The filled bucket is then carried to the site of the blaze and then emptied. This bucket is said to be capable of holding more than 3,000 litres of water and the IAF chopper dispensed more than 22,000 litres of water on Sunday.
IAF's efforts led to the dousing in flames in two major fire zones and additional ground teams are being deployed to relieve the teams that worked through the night.
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