Image Courtesy: pocketranger
The forest fire ravaging Uttarakhand has finally been brought under some control as according to the statement issued by the NRDF which says 70% of the Uttarakhand fires have been doused. Satellite images show that only 100 of the 427 forest fires ablaze in the state are still active however, the state has lost a valuable 3000 hectares of forest cover over the past 90 days, since when these fires first started. The Uttarakhand fires have also cost the lives of 7 people, including 3 women, a six year old child and a police constable.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said, on Sunday, that the government has taken the forest fires of Uttarakhand very seriously and that they had granted Rs. 5 crores to the state the previous day. Home Minister Rajnath Singh had also held discussions with chief secretary and other officials of the Uttarakhand government. The Prime Minister’s Office has also been briefed and it has assured all possible relief.
Acting accordingly, the Indian army, the Air force and 3 teams of NRDF have also been deployed along with MI-17 Helicopters to douse the fire. The police have filed 46 cases under the Forest Act. , on Monday and have arrested 3 people and are on the lookout for 6 more. It is rumoured that such forest fires are often started by timber mafia’s to gain easy timber on the pretext of fire, or local farmers greedy for land. It can also be caused by general carelessness of locals in lighting fires or cigarettes close to the woods.
Around 560 hectares of Wildlife area has been lost to the flames, as two wildlife reserves are located here. The loss of revenue from these fires is ?2.5 Lakh in 1218 incidents reported from the beginning. About 13 firefighters have been injured during these fires, them alleging that there is an absence of proper firefighting equipment and resources needed to fight these incidents.
The eco-logical impact of such an incident is inevitably very grave, say experts at Nainital’s Aryabhatta Research Institute for Observational Sciences (ARIES) and Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development (GBPIHED) in Almora, in a Times of India article. The carbon released by these fires, which is not completely combusted can increase heat in the atmosphere and melt the glaciers up north, even faster than they already are due to global warming. Kirit Kumar of Govind Ballabh Pant institute of Himalayan Environment and Development explains, “In normal circumstances, glaciers act as mirrors reflecting most of the light and heat. This is known as ‘albedo’. But when black carbon gets deposited on them, it results in their absorbing all the light and heat which eventually results in their meltdown. This is a serious concern.” The loss of such an expanse of forest cover would obviously have repercussions in terms of soil erosion, monsoons, temperatures,etc; Wherein experts have already noted a 0.2 Degree increase in the temperatures of the region due to the fires and speculation of future droughts is galore.
After the incident, reports of fires has also been found in Jammu & Kashmir,Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Over 1300 active fires were spotted throughout the hilly regions of India, on Saturday and the government is recently starting a satellite based Fire Alarm system that will send out text messages to the authorities every time a fresh fire is detected.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar has assured that the fire should be brought under control in 3-4 days. Rainfall in the region is expected on Tuesday that would quite significantly impact the fires.
Written by Anushka Jain
Tags: Uttarakhand forest fire
