The intermittent spells of rain being experienced in the State have helped lessen the incidents of forest fire in Uttarakhand this year. The forest fire season in the State starts in February and lasts till June end. However, with spells of light to heavy rain being experienced in different areas of the State in different periods even in May, the incidents of forest fires this year are considerably less. The State Forest minister Dinesh Aggarwal has also credited the rainy weather for mitigating forest fires in the State this year. Spells of rains in the plains and mountainous areas coupled with snowfall in the higher reaches have also prevented the temperature from remaining high for long so far.
According to the Chief Conservator of forests (Environment) KS Samant, the department has so far registered at least 103 incidents of forest fires across the State. These forest fires have affected about 181 hectares of forest land. He said that due to the spells of rainfall, resulting factors like increased moisture and decreased leaf fall have helped mitigate forest fires this year. He said that this year the department had not received any reports of poachers setting fire to the jungles to bring the wildlife out of the forests into the clearing, making them easier to poach.
It is worth mentioning here that forest fire lines- maintained to prevent the spread of forest fires- cover a length of more than 2,500 kilometres in the State. Though forest fires cause considerable damage in the State every year, this year the weather has contributed to mitigating this phenomenon in stead of fuelling it. According to data from the Forest Survey of India, Chamoli, Dehradun, Almora, Tehri and Udham Singh Nagar districts have so far had less than 10 registered cases of forest fires while there have been more than 20 incidents of forest fires in Nainital, Champawat and Haridwar districts between March 6 and May 23.