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ISSUE DATE: April 26, 2021
UPDATED: April 17, 2021 14:03 IST
Up in flames: Fires rage in the Madmaheshwar forest range, Rudraprayag distri
In the first week of April, India hosted US special presidential envoy for climate, John Kerry, in New Delhi as a precursor to the Leaders’ Summit with President Joe Biden later this month and COP-26 (the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference) in November. Around the same time, barely 300 km away in hill state Uttarakhand’s capital Dehradun, chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat was huddled in an emergency meeting to deal with the spreading forest fire in the state. His state, along with neighbouring hill state Himachal Pradesh, is witnessing unprecedented wildfires. The situation is getting worse by the day as the region has had a prolonged dry spell, leaving the forest floor “tinder dry”.
Rain, early intervention curb forest fires
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Compared to previous years, State records the lowest number of fire incidents this year
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Compared to previous years, State records the lowest number of fire incidents this year
Intermittent summer showers and early intervention have saved precious forest tracks from wildfire this fire season.
The State has recorded the lowest number of fire incidents and area lost to blaze this year when compared to previous years.
Since January, only 161 fire incidents have been reported. The loss of forest area in these incidents has been estimated at 408 hectares. Four-year data available with the Forest Department indicate that fire inflicted the maximum loss in 2019 when 1,767.05 hectares was charred in 571 incidents between January and April.
BBC News
By Navin Singh Khadka
Published
image copyrightGetty Images
image captionForest fires in some parts of northern India have been the strongest in one and a half decades
The lush-green mountains in the background usually make the famous Nainital lake in Uttarakhand state of northern India more picturesque.
But for several weeks now haze from forest fires has hidden the mountains, and the lake s beauty has visibly shrunk. You can smell the haze from this side of the lake where I live, said Shekhar Pathak, an expert on the history of forests in the region. Not just the pine trees that are highly prone to fires, even the oak forests are burning and that means the situation is quite serious.