Rain, heavy snow douse fires in Kinnaur

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 16

Widespread rain and snow in Himachal Pradesh has come as a major relief to the Forest Department as it has helped in putting off forest fires in different areas due to prolonged dry spell.

Fallen leaves and pine needles, which are highly inflammable, cause forest fires in Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur and Kinnaur districts during the months of November and December. But the impact was seen more in Akpa - Jangi region of Pooh division in Kinnaur, where thousands of hectares of precious chilgoza pine and juniper forests were destroyed in the past two-three months.

Pooh area residents are enraged over the failure of the Forest Department in taking immediate steps to protect the forests from fires as chilgoza, which is wildly grown in the area, was a major cash crop that fetches very high returns.

Nature Watch India, an NGO working for preservation of forest and environment has blamed the Forest Department for adopting an indifferent attitude and showing reluctance in taking effective steps to control forest fires. They have demanded an inquiry into the alleged “negligence” of the forest staff.

“The inability of forest officials to detect fires in time and failure and reluctance to harness appropriate and adequate measures to control and suppress such incidents is extremely deplorable and we demand an inquiry into the alleged negligence of forest staff in controlling it,” said Rajeshwar Singh Negi, convenor of Nature Watch India.

Alleging that the fire had destroyed a huge stretch of over 10km of prime chilgoza forest, the biggest outside Afghanistan, he said the fire razed all vegetation up to the tree line in a semi-arid alpine ecosystem, with sparse vegetative cover.

Thousands of chilgoza, juniper and birch trees were completely gutted, scrub forest was totally wiped out along with rare medicinal herbs and plant species, with hundreds of wild animals and birds burnt alive, driven to starvation and their habitats destroyed, said Ajay, a resident of Pooh.

Rajeshwar Negi said: “The rain and snow that lashed the region on December 13, 2014, has put off such incidents for now, but these wild fires will continue to ravage many more hectares of chilgoza forests in the future.”

Urging Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to order an inquiry into the failure of district administration and forest officials in controlling forest fires and not making any efforts to protect and safeguard precious forest, he said those responsible for the loss of forest wealth should be identified and penalised for wilful negligence and dereliction of duty.

He said a detailed survey of the loss and damage caused by these fires should be made and medical and financial help be extended to all affected people as the economy of the majority of villagers in this area was dependent on forest produce, mainly chilgoza.

Meanwhile, forest officials said about a dozen fires occurred in the state from mid September till December affecting nearly 200 hectare area and the loss was about Rs 6 lakh. The dry spell is over and snow and rain extinguished fires, they added.