Uttarakhand: Over 40 hectares forest area destroyed in fire in last 24 hours

The Chief Conservator of Forests has said that a special app has been made with the help of Indian Remote Sensing Department. If people through the app send photos of any forest in which there is a fire, then the forest department will get information about its complete location and condition and steps will be taken to extinguish the fire immediately.

Dehradun: In an alarming development, over 40 hectares of forest area have been destroyed by fire in Uttarakhand in the last 24 hours. Forest fire incidents have been reported in the state in 26 different areas in the past 24 hours. In the fire incidents, more than 40.2 hectares of forest have been destroyed. This season, more than 300 hectares of the forest area have been burnt in forest fire incidents.

Experts have been citing two reasons for the forest fires- Natural and second human fires. Human hands are behind most of the incidents as per experts. A total of 240 forest fires were reported from February 15 to April 6, 2022. While 188 incidents took place in reserved forest areas, 52 incidents took place in civil forest panchayat areas.

In the last one and a half months, about 300.36 hectares of forest area were affected by the fire. This includes 218.16 hectares of reserved forest area, while that of civil forest panchayat is 82.2 hectares. In the last one and a half months, there was a loss of more than Rs 11 lakhs due to forest fires. Incidents of fire are being reported more in the reserved forests than in the forests of the Van Panchayat. Chief Conservator of Forests Vinod Singhal says that instructions have been given to everyone in this matter that proper arrangements should be made to ensure minimal damage.

It is being said that a Hi-tech technology is being used by the forest department in Uttarakhand to extinguish the fire. The Chief Conservator of Forests has told that a special app has been made with the help of the Indian Remote Sensing Department. If people through the app send photos of any forest in which there is a fire, then the forest department will get information about its complete location and condition and steps will be taken to extinguish the fire immediately.

Dehradun DFO Nitish Mani Tripathi said that Dehradun is a plain area, due to which if there is a sporadic incident of forest fire in this area, then with immediate effect the staff of the Forest Department reaches there. He said that 8 ranges come under Dehradun DFO, where arrangements for staff and adequate equipment have already been made. Plantation on a large scale in Uttarakhand has always been under question.

There have been allegations that there is a lot of mess in the department in the name of the plantation. Forest Minister Subodh Uniyal says that all the preparations have been made by the department to minimize the damages in the forest fires. He said the department has procured the necessary equipment for the purpose.
It should be noted that in the last ten years, if we talk about the figures for forest fire, then in the year 2012, 2823.89 hectares of forest were burnt by fire, in the year 2013, 384.05 hectares of forest wealth got burnt. In the year 2014, 930.33 hectares of forests were damaged. In the year 2015, 701.61 hectares of forest were burnt to ashes.

In the year 2016, 4433.75 hectares of forest wealth were burnt, in the year 2017, 1244.64 hectares, in the year 2018, 4480.04 hectares, in the year 2019, 2981.55 hectares, in the year 2020, 172.69 hectares, in the year 2021, 3970 hectares, in the year 2021, 3970 hectares of forest wealth got burnt. The lack of rain leads to the abundance of thorny bushes and dry wood in the forests, which catch fire very quickly even at the slightest spark. In such a situation, even a small carelessness of people becomes a big mistake.