With the soaring mercury crossing the threshold of 40 degree Celsius, the incidents of forest fire are on the rise across the state, particularly in Haridwar district where about two-third area is under forest cover. Such incidents happening year after year despite some steps being taken to control the blaze has left the forest department nonplussed. The hill ranges of Mansa Devi forest area are now ablaze and things might turn worse as the meteorological department has forecast continuation of the heat wave for the next three days. In view of 15 such incidents reported in the past two days from the state, the forest department has sounded high alert.
Hardly any forest area of the state has been left unscathed by the blaze, say the worried forest officials. Every year, a considerably large swathe of the forestlands is lost to wildfire. last year, 1244 hectares had been charred in 805 such incidents. As per the departmental sources, fire alerts had been announced at 65 places on Sunday and 255 on Monday. In addition, the same has been sounded for 131 areas located within the eco-sensitive zones. This year so far, over 700 hectares of forest area have been gutted in 500 incidents of forest fires across the state.
The forest officials blame those residing near the forest for the blaze. However, the role of nature cannot be undermined either. Speaking to The Pioneer, the field director of Rajaji Tiger Reserve, Sanatan Sonkar said, “The dried leaves cover the forest floors during this time. Besides, the pine needles are left there in abundance to act as the natural fuel for triggering such fires. Add to it the surging temperature and the high- speed winds blowing across the forest and one would understand how vulnerable the forests are during this time,” he said.
Quizzed over the role of men in igniting such fires, he said that those residing in villages situated in the vicinity of the forests often light such fires intentionally under the mistaken belief that the grass grows better on the gutted fields. “They think that it would enable them to provide better fodder for their livestock,” he added.
Notably, in 2016, forest fires had claimed six lives across the state. Besides, 40 people had sustained burn injuries and hundreds of animals had perished.
Alarmed over the blaze engulfing the forests again this year, the environmentalists, based in Haridwar, have launched an awareness campaign in the hill areas. As a part of it, the students of Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya would reach out to the villagers to warn them against casually throwing the butts of cigarettes or bidis in the forests. Head of the department of environmental science of the varsity, Prof Dinesh Bhatt said that the students have pledged to make the villagers aware of the danger of inadvertently or intentionally lighting the wildfire. “They would spend a good part of their vacation on this save forest mission,” he added.