Fighting Fires in India
Saw this pop up on Google News. Don’t think I even have a category for something this far afield 
Reminded me of the early Connecticut forest fire guides written at a time that tools and equipment were so primitive and in short supply that it directed using things like green cedar boughs to beat out fires, and that wet sacks worked well too.
Now, they clear all growth on either side of the roads and boundary lines of forests and burn the debris so that accidental fire could be prevented from spreading inside the forests. How far they are effective is anybody’s guess ! At vantage points like hill tops, tree-top machans, fire watchers on daily wages are engaged and stationed during the fire season to watch for any fire occurrence through indications of rising smoke, and to immediately communicate to the ground staff through wireless network.
Forest fires are extinguished manually by beating the fire with green leaf brooms unlike in developed countries where helicopters are used to sprinkle or shower water over burning areas, which is very expensive. Fire tenders cannot reach the spot due to steep terrain and absence of roads.
