Uttarakhand under emergency due to forest fires: 1,240 Hectares of land already lost this year
Compared to 172 hectares last year, 1290 hectares of forest area was affected this year. According to a tweet by ANI, apart from four people, as many as seven animals have died in the fire incident in the past 24 hours.
The Centre on Sunday rushed teams and helicopters of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to control the forest fires raging in Uttarakhand, Union home minister Amit Shah said, even as chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat called an emergency meeting to take stock of the situation.
As many as 12,000 guards and fire watchers of the state forest department have been deployed to douse the fire, the official added. In Uttarakhand, forest fires usually start from February and continue for four months, but the state witnessed wildfires even during the winter this time.
Compared to 172 hectares last year, over 1290 hectares of forest land, which is roughly to the size of 2,317 football grounds got affected by forest fires this year. The state has reported over 39 new forest fire incidents in the last 48 hours, taking the number of such incidents this year to 983. Also, four human deaths and seven animal fatalities have been reported so far due to these forest fires.
On Friday, a sizable chunk of forest near Nainital went up into flames. On the same day, villagers in Almora had a hard time to control fire that spread from close by forest. Since the formation of Uttarakhand back in 2000, the state has lost 44,000 hectares of forest owing to wildfires. It witnessed biggest wildfire incidents in 2016 and 2018 when altogether 8,900 hectares of forest land was reduced to ashes.
According to forest officials, apart from less rain in the winter months, due to the fear of epidemic and the lockdown, movement in the forests was restricted. Due to this, a lot of combustible material, mostly pine needles, got accumulated on the forest floor. These materials are cleared every year during control burning but it was affected over the past year, which is one of the reasons for the spike in forest fires.
Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat last week instructed top forest officials to make arrangements for the helicopters to douse the wildfires. He asserted wildfires have increased in the last 3-4 days “as wind blowing with a velocity of 150 kilometres per hour”.
Prominent social activist Anoop Nautiyal, who has been keeping an eye on forest fire incidents, said, “The forest fire situation is turning catastrophic in the state, destroying our forests.”
