Thirteen forest officials and 85 farmers of Phungshing, Baging and Shadang villages in Dremetse, Mongar, spent two whole days battling flames of a forest fire, which burnt more than 500 acres of lemon grass and pine forests near the Sherichhu-Dremetse highway. The fire, which started somewhere near Phungshing village in Dremetse gewog at around 6.30pm on April 21, was brought under control by the morning of April 24. Forestry officials suspect that villagers into lemon grass oil extraction may have started the fire deliberately, because fires allow growth of new lemon grass shoots that contain more oil. But they also pointed out that the sparks created by falling boulders sometimes also cause such fires. According to records maintained by the Mongar divisional forest office, the dzongkhag had two fires earlier this year. One occurred in Resa, Saling gewog, which destroyed 300 hectares (one hectare is 2.5 acres) of forests, and the other in Thangrong, where 2,500 acres were destroyed. Lhuentse dzongkhag, under Mongar forest division, had three minor cases in Yongmaling and Sephog of Gangzur gewog and in Gorgan of Autsho. Transportation appears to be a major bottleneck for villagers, who aid forest officials in battling forest fires. Village volunteers expect at least a lift home after a tiring day of fighting the flames. This becomes a problem if volunteers come from far off villages. "We only have the budget to serve refreshments and nothing more, even then we try to make some arrangement without considering costs,' a forest official said. By Tshering Namgay