Uttarakhand Forest Fires – Destroy Huge Swathes of Green Cover

&NewLine;<p>Recently&NewLine;Uttarakhand witnessed substantial wildfire which took more than 900 hectares of&NewLine;forest&period;&nbsp&semi; Fire incidents were reported&NewLine;from all 13 Uttarakhand districts&comma; and worst which were affected were Almora&NewLine;and Nainital&period; In both these districts&comma; the forest are entirely covered with oak&NewLine;and pine trees which are considered as highly inflammable and cover about 16&NewLine;percent of state’s forest cover&period; Yesterday afternoon&comma; the fire spread till well&NewLine;known Corbett National Park too<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Mamta Chand&comma;&NewLine;range officer of Nanital forest division&comma; said&comma; however&comma; rainfall and hailstorm&NewLine;following the fire brought some relief and also has mitigated the forest to&NewLine;some extent&period; Also&comma; two large active forest fires also reported in Tehri Garhwal&NewLine;as well as Pauri Garhwal districts&period; Sadly since 9th May&comma; the number of forest&NewLine;fire alerts reported is 2460 recorded by SNPP&comma; i&period;e&period; Suomi National&NewLine;Polar-Orbiting Partnership Satellite and MODIS&comma; i&period;e&period; Moderate Resolution&NewLine;Imaging Spectro-Radiometer recorded 231&period;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;As compared to MODIS&comma; SNPP is much more capable of mapping small fires&NewLine;and can attain better accuracy&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Conservator of&NewLine;Forest &lpar;Western Circle&rpar; of Kumaon division&comma; Parag M Dhakate&comma; supposed &OpenCurlyQuote;with the&NewLine;assistance of satellites we can now find out the pinpoint location&period; Previously&NewLine;it was not too easy&comma; but with new technology&comma; we can effortlessly reach the&NewLine;exact location fast&period;’<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>These recent&NewLine;fires have caused innumerable damage as well as devastating acres of green&NewLine;cover in the hilly terrains&period; People who are living in nearby villages which are&NewLine;close to forest light fires so that with first rains new patches of nutritious&NewLine;grasses appear&period;&nbsp&semi; The leading causes of&NewLine;fire spreading were dry weather&comma; high temperatures&comma; as well as lack of rainfall&comma;&NewLine;owing to these it makes difficult for authorities to contain them&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Principal Chief&NewLine;Conservator of Forests &lpar;HoFF&rpar;&comma; Jai Raj said &OpenCurlyQuote;the current situation is under&NewLine;control&comma; and the fire was due to anthropogenic reasons and because of&NewLine;negligence&period; At times people use to throw lit cigarettes unintentionally&comma; also&NewLine;people living nearby forest burn their waste&comma; which causes a fire&period; The fire&NewLine;department&comma; forest department&comma; SDRF and police all working to mitigate the&NewLine;fire&period; We are also witnessing that locals are assisting the department too&period;’ <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Wildlife&NewLine;reserves all across Uttarakhand also been affected by the fire&period; Yesterday&NewLine;afternoon&comma; the fire spread till well known Corbett National Park too&period; With&NewLine;this&comma; the Manda and Bijrani ranges of the park also lost a massive green cover&period;&NewLine;Field Director at Rajaji Tiger Reserve&comma; Prasana Kumar Patro&comma; alleged &OpenCurlyQuote;the&NewLine;Haridwar range specifically Chandi and Mansa Devi area both which come under&NewLine;the Rajaji Tiger Reserve are most affected&period; As per reports about 32 hectares of&NewLine;forest have been affected&comma; however&comma; the situation is under control now&period;’<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Uttarakhand&NewLine;loses a large part of its forest cover every year due to fire&comma; and it is mostly&NewLine;during this time only&period; As per RTI&comma; it was also revealed that more than 44000&NewLine;hectares of forest which are equal to 61000 football fields have been damaged&NewLine;and totally destroyed since the formation of the state&comma; i&period;e&period; in 2000&period; In this&NewLine;recent fire&comma; the forest department faced the loss of over 17 lakh&period; This is the&NewLine;extent of loss&comma; which can be calculated&period; But the rest loss due to pollution&NewLine;levels&comma; air quality&period; Damages of rivers as well as glaciers&comma; a number of birds&NewLine;and insects have not been calculated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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