ISLAMABAD: In yet another incident, fire erupted on Margalla Hills on Tuesday.

Fires broke out at two points – behind Saidpur village and Daman-i-Koh picnic point.

“Our teams are making all-out efforts to extinguish the flames. So far, a major area has been cleared,” said CDA spokesman Malik Saleem. However, he could not ascertain the cause of the fire.

“Generally it is the season when fires break out on the hills due to human errors,” he said.

It is the fourth incident of fire in Margalla Hills in the current month. On March 30, the first major fire of the season kept officials of the environment wing and the emergency directorate of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) on their toes for almost two days. Four helicopters from defence authorities and Cabinet Division had also taken part in an operation to put out the flames.

“Today’s fires were not larger ones. Our teams have been working to extinguish it and as per my information they have so far succeeded in extinguishing the flames on a major portion,” the spokesman said.

Other CDA officials said every year the civic agency hired services of hundreds of local villagers on a daily wage basis for three months to extinguish fires on the hills. In many cases, the officials claimed, those who could not get the seasonal jobs ignite fires in the forest.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2018