Uttarakhand: 146 cases of ‘man-made’ forest fires filed in first 4 months of 2024

The Uttarakhand forest department has intensified its action against people causing forest fires after witnessing a significant rise in such incidents in the state as 146 cases have been filed over ‘man-made’ forest fire incidents in the state just this year.

“Till April 25, the forest department registered 146 cases of ‘man-made’ fire incidents. In the 146 cases, 17 people have been named and the rest 129 are unidentified. We have been making efforts to identify those who are still unidentified,” Nishant Verma, additional principal chief conservator of forests and state nodal officer for forest fires, said.

Uttarakhand chief secretary Radha Raturi on Tuesday instructed officials of the forest department, the police and the administration to take strict action against people who are igniting fires in forests.

Verma said the incidents of forest fires have increased since the second week of April and they are making all possible efforts to curb it. “The incidents of forest fires have started increasing from the second week of this month. Most of the cases are being reported from the Kumaon region. Our teams have been working proactively to prevent the forest fires with the involvement of villagers,” he said.

According to official data, Uttarakhand witnessed 113 forest fire incidents in the past three days (April 23-25). Forry-six fire incidents were reported on April 23, 13 on April 24 and 54 on April 25. Over 139.63 hectares of forest land were destroyed in just these 3 days.

From 1 November 2023 to 25 April 2024, as many as 544 incidents of forest fires were reported in Uttarakhand, of which over 656.55 hectares of forest land were destroyed. Of the total land damaged, 234.45 hectares were in the Garhwal region, 370.45 hectares in the Kumaon region and 51.65 hectares in the administrative wildlife regions.

“The month of April is yet to end...we could see fire dotting forests across Uttarakhand. It is a horrible situation. We can only expect what the situation would be in May and June. There was less snowfall...and water sources are dry. It is causing problems for people, spreading pollution and increasing the temperature. It is destroying our forest wealth, but the government is sleeping. They (government) have released toll-free number 1070 for this, but it remains switched off. There is no help, no helpline. If any villager or tourist suffers due to this problem, they have nowhere to go,” Congress leader and Haldwani MLA Sumit Hridayesh told media persons.

BJP state media in charge Manveer Singh Chauhan responded and said, “All possible efforts are being taken to control the forest fires. All departments concerned, including the police, have been working together to tackle the problem. The CM, and forest minister are regularly monitoring the situation. The forest fires have also been controlled to an extent. The Congress party has a habit of doing politics on all issues.”

Rising temperatures are contributing to an increase in forest fires. The maximum temperature on Thursday was 35.6 degrees Celsius in Dehradun. The state has received just 3.5mm rainfall in the state in April, against a normal of 32.9mm, recording a negative departure of 89%. The state received 56.1mm rainfall in April 2023.

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department has forecast thunderstorms accompanied with lightning and gusty wind at isolated places for the next four days in Uttarakhand.