Shimla, May 21 -- A mock drill conducted by the Forest Department to train staff in fire-fighting techniques went terribly wrong in the Bhingu forest under the Ghumarvi range, as the fire lit for practice engulfed a plantation spread across two bighas.
Villagers claimed that nearly 1,000 pomegranate and teak plants, raised under the JICA-funded biodiversity conservation project, were destroyed in the blaze.
The plantation, nurtured over the last four years by forest lovers of the village, was part of a Palmarosa grass cultivation project meant to generate income through the extraction of aromatic oils. Villagers allege that nearly Rs 25 lakh had been spent on the initiative so far, and the mock drill has now rendered it useless.
Former J...