Fire ravaging large swathes of forested lands across the State, Paryavaran Clean and Green Society, an organisation dedicated to preservation of environment and biodiversity, has expressed deep concern over the recent spate of devastating fires and asked the administration to douse the blaze and stop its recurrence. The outfit served a memorandum to the district administration on the matter too.
At a meeting held at Chandracharya Chownk office on Monday, the president of the society love Sharma said, “The raging forest fires are not just depleting the biodiversity of the region but the smoke arising from the fires is disturbing the ecology of the region. Nainital, Pauri, Ranikhet, Tehri and Haridwar regions bearing the maximum brunt of the forest fire, things warrant the administration and the forest department, in particular, to spring up to their feet to roll out a long-term strategy to stop its recurrence,” Sharma said, adding that the same had broken out on Mansa Devi hills too and one forest personnel had sustained injuries while dousing the fire.
“Things recurring almost every year, mere knee-jerk reaction would not solve the problem. The departments concerned must be on their highest guard and firm up a policy that would eliminate the threat once and for all,” the president of the outfit said.
Secretary of the society Anup Singh Sidhu echoed the same sentiment, saying that the devastation wrought by the infernos might prove irreparable.
“We who work for environment take so much pains to make a common person to plant a sapling.
“And this kind of fire that we are witnessing in our forests ravages flora and fauna of a region in a single sweep,” he said.
The society has also asked the administration to increase safety measures for those living in the proximity to the forests.