Dehradun: Fire incidents, including forest blazes, in Uttarakhand recorded a multifold surge during March-April compared to the same period in 2023, with some districts such as Nainital registering an over seven-fold increase.
An analysis of fire point images captured by NASA’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite conducted by the Climate Trends think-tank shows that fire incidents in all districts of Uttarakhand, except Haridwar, increased many times in March-April this year, Palak Balyan, the study’s lead researcher, said on Monday.
Citing an example, she said the number of fire incidents in Nainital in March-April 2023 was 207. This jumped to 1,524 — a seven-fold increase — during the same period this year. Similarly, the number of fire incidents in Champawat rose to 1,025 in March-April compared to 120 during the year-ago period, she said.
The scope of fire incidents includes forest fires, stubble and garbage burning. In the context of Uttarakhand, it is more about forest fires as the satellite images show most of the blazes occurred in dense forest areas of the hills, she said. Nainital, Champawat, Almora, Garhwal and Pithoragarh have been the worst affected areas. In Almora, fire incidents during the period rose from 299 in 2023 to 909 in 2024, 213 to 615 in Pithoragarh and 378 to 742 in Pauri Garhwal, Balyan said.
Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Environment) Kapil Kumar Joshi said, “Adverse climatic conditions such as humidity levels, prolonged dry spells, high temperatures, wind direction and timing of rainfall contribute to forest fires. “The changing climate conditions over the years have aggravated the adverse conditions.”
“However, it is also a fact that forest fires are a normal phenomenon for the region. Technological advancements have helped in promptly and accurately spotting these forest fires. Therefore, more incident counts are reported and we are also better placed to control such fires,” Joshi said.
The forest fire situation in Nainital worsened on April 26 with the flames reaching dangerously close to a residential colony. However, the situation was brought under control with an Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter roped in to collect water from the lakes in a 5,000-liter Bambi bucket on Saturday and pour it over the flaming forests.
Firefighting operations in the forests of both Kumaon and Garhwal regions continue with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), army, PRD, homeguards and locals, apart from Forest department personnel, working together to douse the flames.
The state reported eight fresh forest fire incidents on Sunday, leading to the arrest of eight people — five from the Garhwal Forest Division and three from the Bageshwar Forest Division — for allegedly deliberately igniting fires
in forests.
