Forest fires may affect water quality: Experts

Jotirmay Thapliyal

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 15

Forest fires that engulfed major parts of Uttarakhand hills can now be instrumental in polluting water bodies. These can also lead to increase in quantity of soil getting washed away during the coming rainy season.

Kirti Kumar, Senior Scientist at the Govind Ballabh Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Almora, said the forest fires resulted in large scale burning of leaves, bushes, grass and other smaller micro organisms, converting them into ash.

Now, whenever rains come, all ash and rubbish flows to water bodies polluting them at an alarming level. This can led to an outbreak of diseases.

Kumar said he had done a study on the Kosi river in Almora and had found pollution in the river rising mainly due to the presence of ash in water. He would now conduct a similar study in the Nayar river of Pauri Garhwal in the aftermath of forest fires that caused major damage in the region, Kumar said.

Uttarkashi district disaster management officer Devendra Patwal has said due to the burning of grass, the possibility of soil getting washed away by rainwater also increases manifold. Soil with burnt surface and devoid of grass is most vulnerable to getting washed away by rainwater.

He said chances of landslide increase if the surface was without grass or bushes. The grass also greatly help in water conservation and recharge underground water sources.

Nearly 4,000 hectares of forests have been destroyed due to forest fires in Uttarakhand this summer. Environmentalists are fearing that the worst still to reach its peak. Last time, major forest fires took place in 2012, when 2823.89 hectares of forests were affected.