India, Jan. 13 -- The Uttarakhand disaster management department has sought assistance from the Indian Air Force (IAF) to douse an active forest fire that has been raging for the past five days near the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Valley of Flowers, in Chamoli district, officials said on Tuesday.

The fire broke out in the forests of Painkhanda under the Valley of Flowers range of the Nanda Devi National Park at an altitude of around 11,500 feet. Due to the difficult terrain and the absence of access routes, the affected area cannot be reached on foot, rendering manual firefighting efforts ineffective, officials said.

Divisional forest officer (DFO) of the Badrinath Forest Division, SK Dubey, said repeated attempts to control the bla...