The Centre on Sunday rushed teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and choppers to control the ravaging fires in the forests of Uttarakhand’s Garhwal and Kumaon regions with Nainital, Almora, Tehri and Pauri districts being the worst-hit. As many as four persons and seven animals have lost their lives so far in the fires.
More than 39 new forest fire incidents have been reported in the last 48 hours, taking the number of such incidents this year to 983 affecting 1,292 hectares of land compared to 172 hectares in the last calendar year.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who spoke to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat and took stock of the situation arising out of the forest fires, tweeted in Hindi, “I have spoken to Uttarakhand Chief Minister @TIRATHSRAWAT and inquired about the forest fires. To overcome fires and prevent loss of life and property, the central government has issued orders for immediately making available teams of @NDRFHQ and helicopters to the government of Uttarakhand.”
The fires, took the State officials by surprise as most of the fires are usually reported in the months of May and June when temperatures peak. But the fires started raging widely this year in March and April itself, said the forest officials attributing it on climate change, according to local reports.
Lesser rain in the winter months last year and lack of human movement in the forests due to the Coronavirus-induced lockdown were reasons behind the forest fires, officials said. They said that due to lack of normal human activity in forests a lot of combustible material, mostly pine needles, got accumulated, leading to the fires.
The officials said that about 3,000 forest department staffers and 6,000 forest fire watchers are involved at present to manage the situation.
However, sources said that even though a number of activists and journalists have been tweeting videos and photos of the fire over the last few days, the government took cognisance of the matter only just recently. Activists slammed the State Government for not taking preventive steps and alleged that the forest fire situation is turning catastrophic in the State, destroying our forests.
While Chief Minister Rawat called an emergency meeting over the forest fire incidents in the state, Uttarakhand’s Principal Chief Conservator (fire) said: “Four persons & seven animals died in fire that broke out in 62 hectares of forest area in last 24 hours. 12,000 guards and fire watchers of state forest department are deployed to douse the fire which has destroyed property worth `37 lakh so far.”
Incidentally, the issue of forest fires in the Himalayan State is already under the scanner of the Supreme Court with activists alleging that most cases of forest fire incidents in Uttarakhand are man-made.
According to an RTI reply by the Uttarakhand Government, since the formation of the State in 2000, over 44,554 hectares of the forest area has been damaged in forest fires.
The forest area affected due to forest fires in 2019 was 2,981 hectares. The corresponding figure was 4,480 hectares in 2018, 1,228 hectares in 2017, 4,433 hectares in 2016 and 701 hectares in 2015.