Indian Air Force helicopters are helping to douse raging forest fires in northern India that have claimed six lives and destroyed large tracts of forests.
More than 1200 fires were raging in various parts of the hill state of Uttarakhand on Sunday and spreading, NDTV news channel reported.
At least 6000 workers were engaged in dousing the fires, federal Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said in New Delhi.
Two Indian Air Force helicopters sprayed water in the worst-affected parts, and National Disaster Response Force personnel have also been deployed.
Aerial photographs showed blazing tracts of forests and a haze of smoke over the forested Himalayan foothills.
Extremely dry weather conditions along with high wind speeds are making the fires spread fast.
Javadekar said the government would investigate how and why the massive fire broke out and spread to such a wide area.
At least 20 of the fires, which started in the first week of February, had occurred in wildlife parks.
Uttarakhand has extensive forest cover and several national parks, some of which are tiger habitats.
