Culprits setting fire yet to be bookHimalayan News ServiceDhankuta, April 12Badhare jungle of Dhankuta, located near the main market of the district, was set on fire on Wednesday by some unknown miscreants. This could have not only ruined the Badhare jungle, but also the old lower Kopche market and Bal Mandir market, had it not been put out on time. The fire was extinguished on time by the combined efforts of the representatives of concerned Community Forest Development Committee and the students living there, renting rooms. The army personals of Batry-Sallery barrack and the police from District Police Office also reached the spot in order to put out the fire.Sixteen hectares of the jungle from a total of 31-hectare patch in Ward numbers 6 and 7 of Dhankuta municipality were damaged by the fire. It is still unknown who set fire to the forest, but Gyaindra Bahadur Rai, secretary of the forest committee said that he had seen two unidentified persons fleeing away the site from another hill when the fire broke. They succeeded in fleeing the locality because Rai and friends flocked to put out the fire rather than follow them. He further said that the forest is set on fire almost every year, but the culprits have never been booked until now.