There is no respite from fires—both forest fires and house fires—continue to wreak havoc across the country in recent days.
As many as 24 houses and 10 sheds were reduced to ashes when a forest fire entered Hadbas settlement in ward 7 of Rajapur Rural Municipality in Dang district on Sunday. The incident occurred at around 3pm.
There were 25 houses in the settlement. Only the tin-roofed house belonging to Man Bahadur Giri was spared from the inferno. “All 24 houses destroyed by the fire had thatch roofs. The wildfire in the nearby forest entered the settlement. The villagers left no stone unturned to prevent the forest fire from entering the settlement but to no avail,” said Bhim Oli, a local. According to him, the forest fire is yet to be contained.
Massive fires have been raging across hectares of forest lands in more than a dozen places in Palpa, a hill district in Lumbini Province. The fire that broke out on the northern slopes of the Shreenagar hill in Tansen three days ago is still out of control. According to local residents, the fire started from the forest area in Gorkhekot and has spread up to Kailashnagar areas.
According to the Division Forest Office in Palpa, wildfires continue in Tallo Shreenagar forest, Ukalepipal forest, and Shreenagar Paryaparyatan community forest of Tansen. Similarly, forest fires are continuing in Dharampani, Bandipokhara, Agahakhola and Ribdikot of Rambha Rural Municipality, Jhumsa, Dobhan and Koldanda among other places of Tinau Rural Municipality in the district. Similarly, forest fires are yet to be controlled in Rainadevi Chahara, Mathagadhi, Nisdi, Purbakhola rural municipalities and Rampur Municipality.
“The fires burned around 2,368 hectares of forest in 95 different places this year. It is quite difficult to douse the fires as strong winds again spread the bushfires,” said Samyog Basnet, the information officer at the Division Forest Office.
As per the data available at the District Police Office, 14 houses were destroyed by fires in Palpa over the past one week while two locals sustained injuries while attempting to control fires. “Most of the fires in the district were ignited by cigarette butts or burning foliages,” said Sugandha Shrestha, the information officer at the District Police Office. Awareness among the people is essential for controlling forest fires, he added.
Wildfires usually start from March in Nepal, when farmers burn the crop residue on the fields and the threat keeps growing until April-May, depending on precipitation. Thousands of fire incidents occur throughout the country during this period and many of them go unrecorded.
Forest fires have been reported in Kanchanpur district of Sudurpaschim Province as well. The fires have been raging in forest areas in the northern part of Brahmadev, Bedkot and Krishnapur municipalities. “Around 300 forest areas have been affected. The wildfires are continuing in the border areas of Kanchanpur and Dadeldhura districts,” said Shivaraj Awasthi, the information officer at the Division Forest Office in Kanchanpur. “Forest fires are going on in the remote areas. It is not possible to reach there and control the fires,” he added.
A week ago, ready-to-harvest wheat on 10 bigha of farmlands belonging to 19 families were destroyed by a fire in Babathan of Dodhara Chandani Municipality. The fire was caused due to a short-circuit in the electricity poles near the fields.
According to the District Police Office, 57 fire incidents have been reported in the district so far this fiscal year.
In Dhankuta, property worth millions of rupees was destroyed in three fire incidents on Saturday. The fire broke out from the house of Mira Karki in ward 4 of Pakhribas Municipality on Saturday and completely destroyed the house, a eatery, and a shop in the house.
According to Shyamsin Chaudhary, the chief of the Dhankuta District Police Office, the fire started from the room of a tenant in Karki’s house while cooking, which caused property damage worth Rs 1 million. Similarly, the fire was brought under control with the help of the army, police, and local residents, along with two fire engines from Dhankuta Municipality.
Another fire started from Badhare Community Forest in Dhankuta at around 9 am nearly destroyed half the forest and nearly entered human settlement, but was brought under control with the help of security personnel. It took more than two hours for 25 soldiers of the Nepal Army from two different battalions and 11 police officers of the Nepal Police to control the forest fire.
Similarly, the forest fire started in Janga Community Forest in ward 2 of Chaubise Rural Municipality of the district and destroyed 180-meter pipelines of the Namkha River drinking water and irrigation project. Due to the damage, several settlements in different wards of Chaubise Rural Municipality are deprived of clean drinking water.
(Our local correspondents contributed reporting)
