Russia supplies space images to help fight Nagaland fires

Russia has supplied space imagery to India to help it deal with large forest fires raging in Nagaland, the Russian space agency said.

Roskosmos said it has provided satellite images for about 1,500 square kilometres of areas affected by fires and will continue collecting imagery of the territory through the next week.

The images have been supplied free under the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, which Roscosmos joined last August.

Roscosmos said the photos are being taken by the Kanopus-V and Resurs-P remote sensing satellites and immediately forwarded to India after processing at the Russian Space Systems earth monitoring centre.

Massive fires have been raging in Nagaland since the end of January destroying pristine forests around Mount Japfu in Kohima. The Indian Air Force (IAF) has for the first time deployed its Russia-built Mi-17 V5 helicopters with firefighting equipment to help douse the fires.

Roscosmos said that it has also been supplying space images to Britain suffering from record floods caused by torrential rains.