Deputy Minister of Tourism Ruwan Ranasinghe has expressed his views on the non-use of helicopters to extinguish the fire that broke out on the 13th in the Ella Rock mountain range belonging to the Ella Wildlife Sanctuary.
He says that using helicopters to extinguish such fires in the past few years has been a costly task. He also says that helicopters were not used this time because last year’s experience has confirmed that it was unsuccessful.
He says that a fully fueled helicopter can only drop two buckets of water on a fire. He also noted that in many cases, due to the prevailing wind conditions, the water dropped from the air does not fall on the intended places.
The Deputy Minister says that the National People’s Powers will take steps to assign the responsibility to the divisional councils to prevent such fires in the future. The fire has so far destroyed nearly 600 acres of land and residents have pointed out that due to this situation, there is a risk of rocks falling down from the mountain peaks.