Significant rise in forest fires in Himachal: Central report

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 20

While the number of forest fires reported in Punjab and Haryana has shown a decline this year, such blazes continue to be on the rise in the ecologically sensitive hill state of Himachal Pradesh.

From November 2021 to June 2022, as many as 5,280 forest fires were reported in Himachal Pradesh, up from 4,110 in November 2020 to June 2021, according to information shared with the Lok Sabha by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. This is a sharp increase from 536 fires reported in the state from November 2019 to June 2020.

In Punjab, 428 forest fires were reported from November 2021 to June 2022, down from 635 in November 2020 to June 2021. There had been 153 fires from November 2019 to June 2020.

Haryana reported 135 forest fires from November 2021 to June 2022, 152 from November 2020 to June 2021 and 68 from November 2019 to June 2020, the ministry’s data revealed.

According to the Forest Survey of India (FSI), forests cover was 27.73 per cent of the total geographical area of Himachal Pradesh. In Punjab and Haryana, forest area accounts for 3.67 per cent and 3.63 per cent, respectively.

Forest fires break during dry and summer months due to various natural and anthropogenic causes, including accumulations of inflammable materials such as dry leaves, twigs and pine needles or human carelessness such as throwing away smouldering match sticks or cigarette butts in forest areas.

Across the country, 2,23,333 forest fires were reported from November 2021 to June 2022 in 36 states and union territories. The figure was 3,45,989 from November 2020 to June 2021 and 1,24,473 November 2019 to June 2020.

The responsibility of prevention and management of forest fires rests primarily with the respective state or union territory while the Union ministry supports these efforts by providing financial assistance for building up fire control infrastructure, procuring tools and equipment and carrying out awareness campaigns.

According to the ministry, a sum of about Rs 113 crore has been released to the states from 2018-19 to 2021-22 under the centrally sponsored Forest Fire Prevention and Management Scheme.

The FSI, in association with the states and union territories has also increased the number of registered users of its forest fire alert system to around 1.55 lakh, besides ramping up the Large Forest Fire Monitoring Programme, designed to improve tactical as well as strategic response to forest fires by the states.

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