A Forest Fire Has Been Raging In Uttarakhand For A Week And No One Is Serious About Tackling It
A raging wildfire which is burning since a week has gutted around 1600 hectares of forest in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand.
The fire has also affected residents of around 1500 villages in the neighbouring areas. Locals say despite the grave situation, the government and fire department has done little to bring it under control.
#WATCH: Fire across 1600 ha of forest area in Uttarakhand,1500 villages in Kumaon & Garhwal division under threat.https://t.co/qEGUfurup1
¡ª ANI (@ANI_news) April 29, 2016
Even though the government has deployed five hundred personnel from the fire brigade to help in controlling the fire, it has had little effect.
ANI
Wildlife officials said even though areas with wildlife have been on fire, no loss of life has been reported.
¡°Wildlife areas have been reporting regular forest fires but no wild animal has been killed in the fires so far. All protected areas are taking great care of their wild species,¡± said BP Gupta, nodal officer for forest fire.
At least 38 forest fires have been reported in the wildlife reserves of Uttarakhand in the past three months. These have destroyed more than 1,351 hectares of forest cover incurring losses of more than Rs 13 lakh.
The Corbett Tiger Reserve and Kalagarh Tiger Reserve have reported 48 forest fires that destroyed 260.9 hectares of forest until Wednesday
Locals allege that the frequent forest fires in the state are the handiwork of timber and land mafia to encroach the land.
Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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