778 ha forests burnt in Uttarakhand in last few weeks

DEHRADUN: Since the start of this forest fire season (mid-Feb to June), Uttarakhand has recorded a total of 567 forest fire incidents (a bulk of them in April), in which 778 ha of forest cover was gutted, causing a cumulative loss of Rs 22.68 lakh.

Almora, where the restaurant of a luxury resort located in popular tourist spot, Kasar Devi got engulfed in a forest fire on Saturday, emerged as the district which saw the maximum jungle blazes, with 237 ha having been gutted (accounting for almost 30% of the burnt green cover in the state) in 118 fires so far this year.Over 30 tourists were in the resort when its restaurant caught fire although there were no casualties.
In Almora forest division, 161.1 ha of land was lost to 83 wildfires and in Civil Soyam Almora division, 76 ha area was gutted in 35 fires.
State forest fire nodal officer Nishant Verma said that Almora's vast swathes of pine forests, high wind velocity and scanty rainfall makes it most susceptible to forest fires out of all 13 districts of the state. As per the regional met centre, from March 1 to April 10 (pre-monsoon season in Uttarakhand), Almora received 0 mm rain as against expected 56.6 mm (recording a 100% deficit). In all, the state recorded a 96% rain deficit in the time period.
"Almora has a lot of chir pine forests and south-facing slopes, which means its forests remain naturally hot and highly inflammable due to heaps of pinecones and pirul, or pine needles, on the forest floor. Flaming pinecones and pine needles often roll down the slopes, carried by high-velocity winds, setting fire to areas untouched by forest fires," said Verma. Most of the state's fires have been reported at reserve forests (area managed by the forest department), with 570.28 ha of land having been gutted in 436 fires. The civil soyam stretches and the van panchayat land saw a cumulative loss of 207.36 ha area due to 141 wildfires.