Consider using artificial rain to check wildfires: HC
HC asked state to fill all forest guard posts and allocate budget to tackle forest fires
DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand high court on Wednesday directed the state government to consider using artificial rain through cloud seeding to tackle raging forest fires.
The court also directed the state government to fill all the vacant posts of forest guards within six months and make proper budgetary allocations for checking forest fires.
Artificial rain through cloud seeding means modifying a cloud’s structure to increase the chance of precipitation by seeding it with some small particulate like matter. In cloud seeding, generally small, ice-like particles, usually, silver iodide particles are used, to act as substratum on which precipitation can occur and then fall on ground under the force of gravity as rain.
Principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) Rajiv Bhartari who had been summoned, was present in the hearing through video-conferencing to apprise the court about the measures taken by the forest department to check forest fires.
Till Wednesday evening, there were over 75 forest fires raging in hill districts, which damaged over 93 acres of forest land in the previous 24 hours.
This year since January 1, the state has reported 1422 forest fire incidents, in which 1943 hectares of forest land has been damaged. Of the 1422 forest fire incidents reported, the maximum 611 fires have been reported in Pauri Garhwal, followed by 220 in Tehri, 180 in Bageshwar and 179 in Almora district, according to the data provided by the state forest department.
In 2017, NGT had issued a slew of directions for checking forest fires in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
NGT had directed union environment and forest ministry that in consultation with the States, it should to formulate National policy/Guidelines for forest fire prevention and control, which should be updated periodically. NGT had also directed the ministry to issue directions under Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act, 1986 to the States to prepare and implement forest fire management plan for effective prevention and control of forest fires in the respective states. The green panel had also directed the chief secretary of the states to review implementation of the Forest Fire/Crisis Management Plan of the State to take effective steps to prevent and control forest fires. The chief secretaries were also directed to ensure that adequate resources and manpower are placed at the disposal of the concerned departments for checking forest fires. The NGT had also directed that forest departments should, as a part of the Management Plan, carry out forest fire vulnerability mapping of the entire forest area, identify highly hotspots of fire in vulnerable areas.
The green panel had directed the state governments that the Forest Fire Management Plan should be prepared with active partnership of the village level Panchayati Raj Institutions, Van Panchayats and the same should be revised every year based on the experience gained. Forest fire activity is generally reported from February to June, with a peak in fire incidence in May and June.
Meanwhile, the forest department booked a 23-year-old man for allegedly trying to trigger a fire in the forest in Nainital.
Mukul Sharma, range officer of Bhowali forest range of Nainitalsaid, “The man identified as Ashok Kumar was nabbed when two of our staffers were on patrolling on Wednesday in the forests near Bhowali bypass area when they spotted him trying to start a fire in the forest.”