A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah assured of providing helicopters and personnel to douse the raging forest fires in Uttarakhand, an MI-17 helicopter of the Indian Air Force (IAF) joined the fire-fighting operation in Narendra Nagar forest division in Tehri Garhwal district on Monday.
The IAF chopper managed to douse fire in some parts but the operation was stopped after two-and-a-half hours following adverse weather conditions. Officials said that the operation will resume on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, 85 new forest fire incidents were reported across the state in the past 24 hours and over 165 hectares of forest area was affected, the forest department said.
