ULAN-UDE, May 25 (Itar-Tass) —— Three forest fires have spread on over 5,000 hectares of taiga in the Trans-Baikal Territory on Friday. “A major forest fire keeps raging in the Duldurga district in the Alkhanay national park. The fire was stopped 12 kilometres away from the settlement Ara-Ilya. However, the fire, which broke out three days ago, cannot be extinguished fully so far,” a source in the main emergency situation department in the Trans-Baikal Territory told Itar-Tass on Friday.
Some 50 people and 16 units of machinery, including fire engines, tractors and bulldozers are involved in the fire-fighting efforts in the national park.
Alkhanay is distinguished among other national parks in the world with many shrines of the northern branch of Buddhism on the Alkhanay Mount (over 1,600 metres above the sea level). This mount is considered to be the sacred rock of the meeting with the God. The national park includes 12 Buddhist religious monuments. The month of benefactions began in late May, which is the month of pilgrimage to the Buddhist shrines.
Some 733 wildfires on 387,000 hectares were reported in the Trans-Baikal territory from the beginning of this spring.