vijayawada the andhra pradesh forest department has deployed almost half its strength to tend to covid19 duties across the stateaccording to principal chief conservator of forest pccf n prateep kumar they have reserved less than half of the required strength to tackle regular forestrelated duties including tackling forest fireswith the recent incident of a tiger testing as covid19 positive in the us the central zoo authority has issued specific guidelines to take precautionary measures to ensure the animals arent affected by the disease across all wildlife conservation centers in the statekumar said that they have installed cctv cameras and kept the animals under constant surveillanceapart from that they are also taking blood samples of animals suffering from health issues and are sending it for testing at the animal health institute a government order go number 239 was issued where the respective district collectors are given the authority to delegate work for the forest officials the forest officials deputed for covid19 duties include assistant beat officer forest beat officer forest section officer deputy range officer forest range officer divisional forest officer and sub divisional forest officer kumar saidapart from uniformed officers district forest officers and sub district forest officers have already been placed under the district collectors disposal the officials are being deputed towards containment prevention and relief measures during the pandemichowever the decision comes at a time when raging forest fires are being reported in tirupati anantapur and srisailam most recently a major fire broke out at seshachalem forest on march 26 due to summer heatofficials point out that it is common for forest fires to occur during the summer season in the state considering the extreme temperatures that would prevail during the later part of this month the state forest department has already been grappling with severe staff crunch and now less than half of the required staff are available to handle any forest fires