Forest fire in Uttarakhand-2016: An overview

Forest fire is a regular phenomenon in India. The forest fire season in India starts from February to mid-June or till the advent of monsoon. Among other states, the Uttarakhand was in the news for unprecedented forest fire phenomenon last year. Since February 2016 till the advent of the monsoon, about 2069 forest fire incidents were detected at more than 1200 places and it destroyed 4424 hectares of the valuable forest land, and took the toll of 6 human lives and injured 31 others. It destroyed the property of worth 4, 629, 825.00 rupees. Worst affected areas hit by the forest fire were from Almora, Nainital, Pithoragarh, Chamoli, Rudraprayaga, Pauri, Tehri and Uttarkashi districts. Pine trees which are, usually, more prone to catch the fire in the state, last year, it burnt the trees like oaks, which remain moist and unaffected during such calamity. Severe climatic conditions, inter alia, human induced fire incidences due to different reasons and unpreparedness of the forest personals in making proper fire-lines in during fire season were the reasons for the last year's disaster.