44% Kumaon forests on fire: Plea in Supreme Court for preventive steps

New Delhi, May 6

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up on May 8 a petition on forest fires in Uttarakhand where 910 such incidents have taken place since November last year, damaging nearly 1,145 hectares of forests.

An advocate told a Bench led by Justice BR Gavai that almost 44 per cent of forests in Kumaon region were burning and shockingly 90 per cent of the fires were manmade.

“It’s carbon flying all over the place. The biggest shock is 90 per cent of it is manmade…,” he told the Bench.

As the Bench wondered, “44 per cent of forests are under fire!” the lawyer – who has sought to be made a party to the case — replied in the affirmative, adding the whole area was covered with pine trees. The Bench said it would hear the matter on Wednesday.

The Uttarakhand Government’s counsel sought court’s permission to file a status report on forest fires. While hearing the petition in 2019, the apex court had observed that forest fires posed a serious problem in hill states and the reason was large presence of highly flammable pine trees.

Petitioner advocate Rituparn Uniyal has demanded urgent steps to protect forests, wildlife and birds from wildfires in Uttarakhand. He has also sought directions to the Centre, state government and principal chief conservator of forests to make arrangements and frame a policy to prevent forest fires.