After a brief relief from forest fires, the situation in Uttarakhand is reverting to the earlier scenario. As on Saturday, a total of 1839 incidents are reported to have affected a total of 4027 hectare forest land.
It is pertinent to mention here that though forest fires are an annual occurrence in the mountainous State of Uttarakhand, the forest fires this time were exacerbated by various factors including the delay and quantity drop in rain during the winter and later months which resulted in decreasing moisture in the soil leading to tinder dry conditions. The Forest Department, personnel of various other departments along with local residents volunteering for the task had been struggling to bring the situation under control till May 5 when a spell of rain across the State brought much needed relief and control over forest fires. The brief relief of four days of cloudy-rainy weather did provided temporary relief while officials stressed on the need for remaining alert as not all areas of the State had received rainfall and the possibility of forest fires taking place once again after the brief period of relief provided by the rains.
According to information provided by the State authorities, till May 14, a total of 1839 forest fire incidents had been reported in various districts of the State. These forest fire incidents have affected 4027 hectare forest area across the state leading to loss evaluated at about ` 4153675. As per the reports received till Saturday, Pauri has seen the most number of forest fire incidents- 366- among the 13 districts of Uttarakhand. Officials point out that considering the weather forecast issued by the Meteorological Centre, there could be further spells of
forest fire incidents in the coming days, depending on various factors including changes in the weather conditions.