Dehradun: Two months on. Close to a dozen incidents of forest fire in Garhwal and Kumaon region. 15 hectares of forest cover lost and adding to that, an economic loss of rupees 26, 475 to the ex-chequer. And this is just the beginning of a scorching summer up ahead, leading to increasing instances of forest fire.
Leading from the front, District Haridwar has to-date witnessed four forest fire incidents since 15th of February when the Forest Fire Season officially begins in Uttarakhand. The season comes to an end on the 15th of June, just when monsoon comes knocking.
Ranjan Misra, Chief Forest Conservator assures us, “We have taken preventive measures such as controlled fire-lines and rotational burning of grass and shrubs, we have been successful in controlling forest fires thus far.“
Long spells of dry weather; low lying land winds and rising mercury have in the past been the perfect recipe for disaster. 2016 summer, Uttarakhand witnessed raging infernos turning everything in its path to ashes. Last year too i.e. the summer of 2018, 4,480 hectares of forest cover were affected by 2,150 forest fire instances alone.
Leaving no stones unturned, the Forest Department has divided forest areas into sensitive and highly-sensitive sectors and dedicated a mobile no: 7900577999 for anyone willing to share information regarding forest fires in their area. Along with that, the Forest Survey of India has registered 2229 for sms fire-alerts as well.
The Forest Department has set up 40 control rooms in Dehradun, an Information Technology and Geo-Information cell which co-ordinates with 1,437 crew-stations along with 174 watch-towers keeping a vigilant eye on any untoward incident.
As mercury rises, garlands of fire are visible at night from a distance. In the day, billowing tendrils of smoke rise as our forests fall prey to rising flames, a growing threat to Uttarakhand’s 3,400 sq km of green forest which comes under threat each fire season.
