Environment: In the first six days of April, Uttarakhand has recorded 414 incidents of forest fire across different parts of the state. This has damaged 654.3 hectares of land, including several hectares of reserve forest areas.
The central government has provided two MI-17 helicopters for fire-fighting operations—one each deployed in the Kumaon and Garhwal regions. Over 12,000 forest personnel have been deployed in fire-fighting operations across the state.
Forest fires have affected more than 1,290 hectares of forest land in 2021 compared to 172 hectares last year, with four people losing their lives, two of whom were forest personnel.
Seven districts in the state including Pauri Garhwal, Tehri Garhwal, Dehradun, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Nainital, and Almora are most vulnerable to forest fires.
Uttarakhand has around 38,000 square km of forest, which is almost 71 percent of its geographical area. It witnessed its worst wildfire in 2016 when over 4,538 hectares were gutted in more than 2,000 incidents of forest fire.
Read this article on how COVID-19 has exacerbated climate concerns.
