The forest fire has been seething in Pauri Garhwal and Kumaon districts of Uttarakhand for the last five days now. Srinagar, the largest town in the Garhwal Hills borne the major brunt of fire flames, devastating various parts of the forest area. Along with this, the flames also engulfed the forest areas of Haridwar, Haldwani, Bageshwar, Almora, and Uttarkashi.
As per the Chief Conservator of forests, BP Gupta, “A total of 69.71 hectares of forest area was lost due to fire incidents on Saturday and Sunday while we haven’t yet collated the damages caused in incidents on Monday.”
He further added that the financial loss due to these fire events has been assessed to be around Rs 3.5 lakhs. However, no loss of human life has been reported so far.
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Pauri Garhwal region is home to one of the final extends of thick forest woods in Uttarakhand.
Increasing temperatures due to persistent dry weather have been considered the major cause of fire broking out and engulfing such a vast forest area. Along with this, some negligence on part of locals can also the reason for the fire flames.
The temperatures over most pockets of Uttarakhand have been reaching beyond the 40-degree mark for the last many days leading to severe heatwave conditions. Let us take a look at the maximum temperatures recorded by many parts of Uttarakhand on Monday:
The winds over the region have also been blowing at a moderate speed which is fueling in the spread of flames, thereby resulting in covering such a vast area.
As per Skymet Weather, as of now also, the weather would continue to remain dry and warm for the next 3-4 days due to which the temperatures would continue to soar, and the situation may deteriorate further. However, relief in terms of any rains can be anticipated around May 27 or 28.
Moreover, Skymet Weather states that the months from February to June is the peak forest fire season in the country.
As per the forest department, around 898 hectares of forest land arrive has been inundated by the wood fire in Uttarakhand with 542 fire occurrences reported over the slope state till April 28. Meanwhile, 171 fire episodes were accounted for in Kumaon division, 371 happened in Garhwal division.
Image Credit: Times of India
Any information taken from here should be credited to skymetweather.com
