The Centre on Monday said forest fires raging through large parts of Uttarakhand have began showing signs of abating as two IAF choppers and over 10,000 personnel continued firefighting operations. The Government did not rule out the possibility of the blaze being a manmade disaster.
Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday told Parliament the number of fire cases in Uttarakhand has come down from 1,200 to 60. “With combined efforts from various organisations, we have managed to control the extent of the forest fire. I had followed with the Governor on the issue. Four persons have been arrested from Paudi who were trying to set forest on fire,” said Javadekar.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh informed the lok Sabha on Monday that the situation has been brought under control, and some expert teams have been sent to the area. While some MPs claimed that 8 people have been killed in the forest fire, the Home Minister said he has so far not been informed by the Uttarakhand administration of any death due to the fire.
Rajnath’s statement came after the issue of Uttarakhand forest fire was raised in the lok Sabha during Zero Hour by Saugata Roy (TMC), who claimed that the fire was spreading to Himachal Pradesh and parts of the Jammu region. Sharing his concern, Ramesh Pokhriyal (BJP) said the blaze has affected the habitat of the tiger and destroyed a large number of medicinal herbs and plants. He said the fire has been exacerbated by the dry weather.
In Himachal Pradesh, summer fires in grasslands and forests have caused 378 incidents, mainly in the low hills, and destroyed flora and fauna in over 3,000 hectares, a senior forest official said on Monday. However, Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said forest fires in his State are “not comparable” with those raging in Uttarakhand and the situation here is “fully under control”.
According to NDRF, the latest satellite imageries indicate that the forest fire has been controlled in over 75 per cent of the affected areas.”We have been informed that fresh images from satellite have shown that the effective area under fire in Uttarakhand has come down to 110-115 locations from the earlier about 427,” said NDRF Director General OP Singh. The NDRF team is also working to save animals that could have been trapped in the blaze, he added.
Outside Parliament, Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijju said, “If required, the Central Government will send more forces to Uttarakhand to assist the State Government in dousing the fires. Continued on Page 4
Uttarakhand forest blaze contained
More than 6,100 personnel and three IAF choppers fitted with Bambi bucket to carry water are working to extinguish multiple forest fires,” he informed.
Javadekar in a written reply to Rajya Sabha further informed on Monday that there have been more forest fires in four months this year than 2015. As per the data up to April 21, a total of 20,667 incidents of forest fires have occurred in the various states of the country as compared to the total number of 15,937 last year. The Ministry has formulated a contingency plan for dealing with such crisis, he said.
Himachal Principal Chief Forest Conservator SP Vasudeva said, “The sudden rise in mercury and the prolonged dry spell are mainly the reasons for these forest fires. Most of the fire-related cases are from the Shivalik ranges in Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Solan and Sirmaur districts and a majority of them are ground fires.”
Records of the Himachal forest department said 22 per cent or 8,267 sq.km of the total forest area in Himachal is fire-prone. A majority of the fires were reported from the pine forests since during summer, the trees shed pine needles that are highly inflammable due to the rich content of turpentine oil.
Forest fires have also threatened the existence of the world heritage Kalka-Shimla rail line at several points near Dharampur town, 65 km from here. “Both sides of the track were under fire but the fire was doused after some hours. The rail traffic was affected for sometime but now normal traffic has been restored,” a senior Indian Railways official said.
However, a major relief is likely in store, with Himachal Pradesh weather department forecasting rain on Tuesday.