Uttarakhand jungle fires led to ruining of jungles equalizing 85000 football fields. A solution suggested by IGP
In Uttarakhand about 45 thousand hectares of forest land have been ruined completely with flora and fauna razed to ground. There have been hundreds of news reports and articles on these vast jungle fatalities of human and animals but the successive governments have hardly devised any concrete way-out to get rid of this permanent summer season tragedy that engulfs majority of the forests of Uttarakhand.
According to a news report jungles equalizing about 85000 football grounds have been completely damaged during the forest fires of the last two decades after achieving separate Uttarakhand status.
Eminent social activist and former DG of Uttarakhand’s ambulance 108 project Dr. Anooop Nautiyal through a tweet enclosing a BBC report wrote that time has arrived that the forest department take this seriously as a watershed moment and comes out with some incredible way out to stop the increasing fired in Uttarakhand. They just can’t become a scapegoat in the name of less staff, man power or equipments. After all Uttarakhand has lost jungles equalizing 85000 football fields.
Meanwhile president of India Green Party Suresh Nautiyal who also seems to be extremely concerned about continuing jungle fires in Uttarakhand while speaking to UKnationnews.com said : If the government of India is really interested to find a solution to the apathy of people in saving the forests from fires , deforestation etc, it should return the forests to the communities living in and around the forests. He added that in the pre British period, forests in the country were managed by communities living in and around the forests and by the people dependent on them for their sustenance and livelihood. In addition to this remedy, the governments should equip these communities with the fire extinguishing equipments and appoint dedicated and remunerative forest officials ( guards) in the local Gram Sabhas , village councils at the decentralised levels, making them accountable, for any fires within their boundaries of their gram Sabhas or village councils. Suresh Nautiyal catagorically said that people’s participation in the management of forests will definitely repair, restore, rejuvenate and revitalise the forests once again. It may be recalled that after the emergence of Van Adhiniyam in Uttarakhand the participation of the local populace in jungle affairs have been taken away and it is since then that the wild fires in Uttarakhand jungles have become order of the day during summers with no local check at the decentralised Gram Sabha level as used to be during British era.
Pic: courtsey HT
