OP AGNIHOTRI | Haldwani
Taking a significant step towards strengthening forest protection and environmental balance, Haldwani Forest division has started installing solar energy-operated systems in its remote forest posts and fire crew stations located deep inside the forest areas. The project is being implemented under the technical support and guidance of Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (UREDA).
A large swathe of forest areas under the division is extremely inaccessible and bereft of the conventional electricity supply due to which the forest personnel on duty keep facing difficulties in night duty, communication, mobile charging and operationalising essential equipment.
With problems piling up rendering the forest life vulnerable to poachers and others, the Forest department has finally fallen back upon solar power system installation as a permanent solution which, according to the division officials, would ensure 24-hour, pollution-free and sustainable power supply at the inaccessible forest posts.
In the first phase, solar power plants of up to capacity of 02 kW are being installed at remote posts selected by Haldwani Forest division. The senior forest officials of the division informed that each of the systems being installed includes basic facilities like battery backup, charge control unit and inverter among others.
Speaking more of the initiative, they said that this was meant not just to provide better working facilities in conservational efforts but also ensure energy self-reliance for the division and modern resources to the foresters, adding that this would facilitate enhanced patrolling and monitoring of vulnerable forest areas aside from mitigating the damage caused by the forest blaze incidents.
