As many as 373 incidents of forest fire have been recorded in the time span of just 12 days in April that have affected 3664 hectares of land and spelled losses to the tunes of Rs 86 lakh in Himachal.
The rise in forest fire incidents due to prolonged dry spell in Himachal is keeping the Forest Department officials on tenterhooks. While the state has reported 373 incidents of forest fire this month till April 12, a total of 1045 such incidents were reported in the year 2020-21.
In April, the incidents of forest fire have been reported in Bilaspur, Chamba, Dharamshala, Hamirpur, Nahan, Rampur, Mandi, Kullu, Nahan, Shimla, Solan among other areas. As forest fire rages in the hill state, Bilaspur (forest circle)has been worst affected with 69 such incidents leaving 1051 hectares of area affected followed by Mandi (forest circle), where 73 incidents were reported leaving 1035 hectares of land damaged.
On April 12, 33 incidents of forest fire were reported in the state, leaving 175 hectares of land damaged and causing a loss of Rs 2.6 lakh.
The rising incidents of forest fires in Himachal this year have been attributed to less rainfall and rising temperatures. The state has recorded a deficit of 62 per cent in precipitation during March and a deficit of around 80 per cent in February.
Out of a total geographical area of 55,673 square kilometres, Himachal has a forest area of 66.52 per cent (37,033 sq km) and a forest cover of 27.72 per cent (15,433.52 sq km). In the hill state, the summer fires occurring from March to June are severe as the summer dry season coincides with shedding of needles by Chir Pine trees that are highly combustible. These fires, due to valley wind, spread very rapidly causing extensive damage to the forests. “With increase in temperature levels and huge deficit of rainfall in the last three months leading to less moisture on the ground, the incidents of forest fire are likely to increase this year. 373 incidents of forest fire reported this month till April 12 have caused a loss of Rs 86 lakh and left 3664 hectares of land affected including 2892 hectares of forest land and 768 hectares of plantation,” said Rajiv Kumar, APCCF (management), Himachal Forest Department while talking to The Pioneer.
He said that a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is being followed by the Department to tackle the forest fires. A provision of deploying helicopter services for dousing the forest fires has also been made this year. The forest staff have been patrolling the vulnerable areas.
The forest officials, while putting their life at risk, have controlled all forest fire incidents in around three-four hours and no incident have continued for more than 24 hours this month, he added.
Kumar further said that the Department is working on a proposal to deploy drones to keep a check on forest fires in the state.
As per the data of the Forest Department, a total of 1045 cases of forest fire were reported in 2020-21, and over 10562 hectares of land was affected causing a cumulative loss of Rs 3.37 crore in the hill state. A large number of 1789 incidents of forest fire were reported in 2016-17 alone, and 19162 hectares of the forest cover was burnt, leading to a loss of Rs 3.27 crore. Prior to this, a high 1798 forest fire incidents were reported in 2012-13 leaving 20773 hectares of forest land affected and causing a loss of Rs 2.76 crore.
