The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) will conduct its first-ever mock exercise on forest fire in Uttarakhand on Thursday (April 20, 2017) to help improve the preparedness and response mechanism in the event of a forest fire. 

The mock exercise will be conducted on the principle of Incident Response System (IRS), which identifies stakeholders and clearly attributes roles and responsibilities to each one of them. It will enhance preparedness and ensure a swift response by reducing confusion and chaos. 

It will help in filling gaps, ensuring better communication and improving coordination among various stakeholder agencies. It will also generate awareness among the local population about the Do's and Don'ts to be followed to prevent and respond to a forest fire. 

The mock exercise will be part of a three-day event which will begin with a Co-ordination Conference on Tuesday followed by a Table-top Exercise on Wednesday. Districts will attend these preparatory meetings through videoconferencing from Dehradun, the State Capital. 

An orientation conference was held earlier with concerned officials to ensure the smooth facilitation of the exercise. 

Senior officials from all the important departments such as the Army, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), forest, health, police, firefighting, Civil Defense, transport, electricity, public relations, etc. will participate in the exercise. 
 

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KSD/NK/KM 

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