Thick smoke rises over the hills of Kasauli after a massive forest fire broke out near the cantonment’s heritage precincts

An Mi-17 helicopter of the Indian Air Force carries out Bambi Bucket sorties, collecting water from Sukhna Lake to douse flames raging across the Kasauli hills

Under the supervision of the Army’s Victory For Certain Brigade, troops launched an extensive firefighting operation to prevent the flames from spreading across Gilbert Trail, Shourya Marg and adjoining forest areas

Army personnel move through smoke-filled slopes and forest tracks as they battle the wildfire that threatened sensitive and historic zones of the hill town

A joint firefighting operation involving the Indian Air Force, cantonment authorities, civil fire tenders and Army teams continued for more than 16 hours to contain the blaze

Authorities confirmed that no civilian or combatant casualties were reported during the operation.