COIMBATORE: Four persons were arrested by the forest department on Thursday for setting fire to pruned tea plants, which spread to the adjoining forest areas in Coonoor in the Nilgiris.

Teams of the forest department continue to battle hard to douse the fire which broke out in the forest area in Forestdale locality on Wednesday. An inquiry by Coonoor Forest Range Officer N Ravindranath revealed that an estate owned by Ebinizer Jayaseelan Inbam was found to be origin of the fire.

 The villagers of Forestdale demanded the forest department to douse the fire by deploying helicopters. Because of the raging fire, the 300 odd families residing in Firstdale village suffered from breathing issues owing to the smoke.

Large tracts of forest area have been gutted in fire, after the fire engulfed the woods on Wednesday. The fire department finding it tough to as dousing fire in the thick of the forest, in its interior parts, is proving to be difficult.

The forest department staff arrested the estate owner along with three workers Karuppaiah (65), Mohan (35) and Jayakumar (60) for setting off the fire. They were produced in Coonoor court.