Andhra records 137 cases, T’gana follows

ACCORDING TO FSI DATA, 139 FIRES ACTIVE ACROSS INDIA MONDAY, WITH HIGHEST CASES IN MEGHALAYA (32), 27 IN TELANGANA, 12 IN MAHARASHTRA, 10 IN MADHYA PRADESH

DEHRADUN: Since the “forest fire season” started across different states in the country, Andhra Pradesh has witnessed the highest number of large forest fires with 137 cases since January this year, according to records maintained by Forest Survey of India (FSI).

Tel a ngana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu f o l l o w wit h a minimum o f around 50 cases of large forest being reported this year.

“Forest fire season” is the time after winters when there are natural chances of forests catching fire due to rise in temperature.

Telangana alone witnessed 47 large forest fires in the last week since March 4, which is more than double of the cases from other states like Maharashtra (22), Andhra Pradesh (19), Karnataka (19) and 18 in Chhattisgarh.

Karnataka has witnessed 99 incidents of large forest fires this year, including the fire at Bandipur Tiger Reserve.

Ranga Rao, additional principal chief conservator of forest, Karnataka forest department, said, “All concerned officials across districts and forest divisions in the state are working to prevent and control future forest fires.”

Brijesj Kumar Dikshit, additional principal chief conservator of forest (APCCF) for forest resource management in Kar- nataka could not be reached, despite attempts, till the filing of the report.

According to data maintained by the FSI, 139 forest fires were active across the country on Monday, at the time of the filing of the report.

Highest incidents on Monday were detected in Meghalaya with 32 active large forest fires, followed by 27 cases in Telangana, 12 in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh (10) among other states.

Two large forest fires were active in Uttarakhand in the Badrinath forest division and Haldwani forest division, till the filing of this report.

Twenty other forest fire incidents were also detected in Uttarakhand on Monday from eight districts which include, Pauri Garhwal, Rudraprayag, Nainital, Chamoli, Udham Si ngh Nagar, Bageshwar, Champawat and Pithoragarh. Cases o f l a r g e f o r e s t f i r e s increased around the last week of February with the number g o i ng up t o 1 1 4 f i r e s f r o m 55 fires.