With the temperature approaching or crossing 40 degree Celsius in various parts of Uttarakhand affecting routine public life especially in urban areas, the forest areas of the State too have continued to suffer from forest fires though the number and extent of forest fires has been brought down with less than two dozen forest fire incidents being reported from different parts of the State on Tuesday.
The State administration and Forest Department aver that various measures including public awareness activities are being taken to minimise the probability of forests fires. On the other hand, environmentalists aver that by disconnecting community from forests the authorities have exacerbated the forest fire scenario by breaking the bond local communities had with forests and environmental wealth.
According to the information provided by the authorities, since the start of the forest fire season in Uttarakhand this year on February 15 till May 17, a total of 1,878 forest fire incidents have been reported from various parts of the State. As per official data on forest fires this year, the 1878 fire incidents as on May 17 had affected a total area of 4093.65 hectare with the evaluation of loss being placed at Rs 4,21,5000 so far.
As expected, the State Forest and Wildlife minister Dinesh Aggarwal has issued various instructions to department officials which include increasing the number of fire lines and utilisation of latest technological developments and various modes of communication including the social media to raise public awareness and facilitate swifter and convenient reporting of forest fire incidents.
The State Forest department officials state that effective implementation of these and other measures will help mitigate forest fires. On his recent Dehradun visit, the director general of forests, Sharad Singh Negi had informed that the Centre will facilitate Rs 500 crore grant through the World Bank to Uttarakhand in a period of five years to take necessary measures for forest fire mitigation.
However, skeptics stress that work efficiency and attitude of the State’s establishment need improvement to achieve the desired result considering that the file on financial assistance and other aspects for wildfire mitigation was purportedly still in the secretariat instead of being submitted to the Centre.
Recently, a group of artistes was flagged off from Dehradun to visit various parts of Uttarakhand for raising public awareness on the various aspects of forest fires through the means of street plays and other recreational medium. While department officials state that necessary measures are being taken and results achieved for forest fire mitigation, locals, environmental and social activists stress that simply implementing such measures will not achieve the long-term results.
Activist Suresh Bhai states, “Every year forest fires affect about 18,000 hectare forest in the mountainous and plain areas of the country. Environmentalists across the nation have been demanding for some time now that the responsibility of forest should be handed over to the local villagers who would themselves mitigate and prevent forest fires.
However, in reality the communities and natives who have been living amid forests have been displaced on the grounds of environmental regulation. The people who had grown and nurtured the forests are now themselves facing problems in collecting fodder and firewood from their woods,” he added.