PRAYAGRAJ, May 19 -- A fire broke out in the Manda forest area, following which forest personnel at the spot immediately informed senior officials and the fire department. Acting on the alert, several forest officials and staff, along with two fire tenders, rushed to the site. However, despite continuous efforts, the blaze remained uncontrolled for nearly six hours. On Monday morning at around 11 am, forest guard Sanjesh Maurya, who was deployed in the forest area, noticed flames and immediately informed forest ranger Adarsh Tripathi about the incident. Two fire tenders from Meja fire station reached the forest area around noon and continued efforts to control the blaze until 4.30 pm. Driven by strong winds, the fire spread across nearly 1.5 kilometres of forest land. Forest officials have begun assessing the damage, though an accurate estimate will only be possible after the fire is completely extinguished. Prima facie, forest officials suspect that the fire may have been deliberately started by miscreants or accidentally triggered by a cigarette spark. Chief forest officer CM Sharma said the forest fire had not been fully brought under control and fire tenders from two stations were continuously engaged in efforts to douse the flames....