Dhananjay Mohan, the HoFF, has shared that Uttarakhand state fires have unfortunately led to the deaths of five people and affected the forest area of more than one thousand three hundred hectares. Mohan responded that the fire brigade team had reacted promptly to the alarm situation with the technical staff from the forest department present.
Seized to reveal that his office had registered 388 cases of forest fire, out of which 60 were formally claimed to be the act of arson. There were four Nepalese nationals killed, including those who were working in Almora, and the fifth one was an old woman which was from Pauri.
The forest fires spread on containment efforts, he stressed, and the incidents are still taking place in the Garhwal division and some places of Almora. Destroying rugged forest fires negligence is done by strict actions, with 17 guys found to be hardly exempted, which made 10 of them suspended. This impact extends over an area of 1300 hectares of forestland.
In response to the crisis, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami conducted a review meeting to assess preventive measures and readiness for the upcoming monsoon season. Dhami emphasized the importance of secretaries’ district-level inspections to combat forest fires effectively.
As a result of Dhami’s directives, ten Forest Department personnel were suspended for alleged negligence. Further disciplinary actions are pending against additional personnel.
The Supreme Court, however, took that as petty and argued that the problem is far more than mere cloud seeding or rain dependency that the addiction is immune to. The Justices Gavai and Mehta from the bench added that the onus of controlling the spread of the disease was more upon the government than on the public.
Uttarakhand government highlighted before the Supreme Court that the lock-up of 398 forest on-fires just since November 2023 are the results of human negligence, thus underscoring the significance of implementation of all-inclusive preventive measures. The foregoing forest fire crisis is an unmistakable indication to all authorities and communities of Uttarakhand to up their game in environment preservation to ensure that the natural resources that Uttarakhand has are safeguarded and the habitat and life are no longer lost due to these fires.
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