In Uttarakhand, forest fires flared up over the past day prompting the Centre to rush two helicopters to the state on Sunday to bring the situation under control.

Forest officials said that there are 40 active fire spots in the forests of Garhwal and Kumaon regions with Nainital, Almora, Tehri and Pauri districts being the worst-hit.

They further added that since January this year, there have been 983 incidents of forest fire in the state affecting 1,292 hectares of land.

Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat informed Union Home Minister Amit Shah about the current forest fire situation in the state following which two helicopters were rushed in to provide help.

Shah said in a tweet, “I have spoken to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat to get an update on forest fires in the state. Instructions have been issued to send helicopters and National Disaster Response Force teams to the state to minimize loss of lives and property due to the wildfires.”

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An emergency meeting of senior officials of the forest and disaster management departments and other district officials to assess the situation and discuss ways to effectively control it was called by TS Rawat.

He said that 12,000 forest department personnel have been deployed and 1300 fire stations have also been set up to stop forest fires.

The CM added that the two helicopters have already arrived in the state and expressed hope that they will help in controlling the situation.

One helicopter will be stationed in Gauchar & it will collect water from Shrinagar and the other will be stationed in Haldwani where it will collect water from the Bhimtal lake to extinguish the forest fires.

The chief minister said that Forest department officials have been asked not to take any leave and keep a close watch on the situation, adding bushes around residential areas are being cleared so that the forest fires do not spread there.

A major reason for rising forest fire incidents in the state is the paucity of rain during winter. The CM added that the rainfall during winter was less than normal this year.

Also Read: World must act now on Climate Change- US wildfires are just the tip of the iceberg

Since the beginning of 2021, there has been a series of forest fires in Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland-Manipur border (Dzukou valley), Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, including in wildlife sanctuaries. Generally, April-May is the season when forest fires take place in various parts of the country. But recently, forest fires have been more frequent than usual in Uttarakhand and have also taken place during winter; dry soil caused by a weak monsoon is being seen as one of the causes.

Forest fires can be caused by a myriad of natural causes, but officials say that many major fires in India are triggered mainly due to anthropogenic activities. New emerging studies link climate change to rising instances of fires globally, especially the massive fires of the Amazon forests in Brazil and in Australia in the last two years. Forest fires of longer duration, increasing intensity, higher frequency, and highly inflammable nature are all being linked to climate change.

Climate-change has caused severe alterations many systems including water-cycles & bio-geo-chemical cycles around the world. The deficiency of rainfall in winter which has triggered the forest inferno, may well have been caused due to climate-change. The impact of climate-change on Himalayan & sub-himalayan systems has been a subject of study. Climate-change may have been a causative factor behind the fire.

Forest-fire Dzukou valley Nagaland

A forest fire had broken out in Nagaland’s Dzukou valley and started spreading to the hills of neighbouring Manipur in January 2021. The fire had broken out in the valley on December 29, last year. While the fires were initially confined to Nagaland, they soon started to spread to other areas.