[ad_1]
A helicopter of the National Force that is part of Operation Pantanal II, to fight fires, fell today in the Porto Jofre region, in the municipality of Poconé (MT), with three crew members.
According to the Mato Grosso Fire Department, Commander Renato de Oliveira Souza, of the Federal District Civil Police, was on board; co-pilot Luiz Fernando Berberick, from the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police; and Second Sergeant Emerson Miranda Martins, from the Rio de Janeiro Military Police.
They were rescued alive by the air ICU of the CIOPAER(Integrated Coordination of Air Operations), of the Brazilian Navy. One of the victims had an open leg fracture. After being transferred to Porto Jofre (MT), they were transferred to Cuiabá for further attention.
Burning in the Pantanal
The Porto Jofre region is located at the end of the Transpantaneira highway, which runs through the Pantanal of Mato Grosso. The Cuiabá River flows there, which is located on the border with Mato Grosso do Sul. The region is known as a tourist pole, since it is the access channel to the Encontro das Águas State Park, known for having the highest concentration of jaguars in the world. .
It is also one of the regions most affected by the fires in the Pantanal, which this year already destroyed 3,977,000 hectares of the biome in Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, as reported this week by Folha de S. Paulo. There are almost 40 thousand km² of devastated fauna and flora, an area slightly smaller than the state of Rio de Janeiro.
In the park, according to data from the ICV (Instituto Centro de Vida) collected between January and the end of September, more than 470 hot spots were registered. 100,500 hectares were reached, equivalent to 93% of the total area. For comparison, in 2019 there was no hot spot in the park.
Mato Grosso had the largest area burned, but in recent days, the southern Pantanal region has concentrated most of the fire.
The biome is also facing one of its worst droughts in decades, driving the scope of the fire. Ponds and corixos (small pools of water that form under bridges, for example) have dried up. In addition to the fire, the animals have faced thirst and hunger in the region.
On the 25th, the Twitter It showed that the Federal Police already has enough evidence to denounce at least four farmers for the fires in Serra do Amolar (MS), which has been the Pantanal region most affected by the fire in recent days. As in the Amazon, farmers in the Pantanal use fire to clear pastures and sometimes for deforestation.
