Due to rain and snowfall in the summer, forest fires in Uttarakhand were ‘unusually low’ until last week. In Uttarakhand, 334 fire events were reported from February 15 to May 15 of this year, affecting 388 hectares. The amount is “miniscule as compared to previous year,” according to officials, and the fires have increased since May 12.
“The fire incidents have increased since May 12 as temperature soared. A dry spell has been predicted till May 20. Our teams are actively dousing fires,” said chief conservator of forests (fires), forest department, Nishant Verma.
This year, the division reported 201 fire events that destroyed 232.24 hectares of forest. Over the same time period, Garhwal reported 105 incidents—half as many as Kumaon—which destroyed 116.12 hectares of forest.
This year, 28 fires in protected areas burned down 40.57 hectares of forest. In addition, fires have destroyed roughly 2130 planted saplings over a 6.75 acre area.
The government is appealing for assistance from Incident Response Teams now that forest fires have resumed.
The state has urged district magistrates to establish IRTs with involvement from all significant stakeholder departments that could help put out fires. Together, we could reduce losses. But thus far, the response from these teams has been muted. A message to DMs regarding this has been sent.
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