Uttarakhand sees 74% rise in forest fires, worst hit in country
Uttarakhand has recorded a 74 per cent rise in the forest fire thereby jumping from 13th place in the last season to occupying the top spot in the list of affected states, according to the report by the Forest Survey of India (FSI).
It reported that satellites recorded 21,033 fire counts from November 2023 to June 2024 compared to 5,351 from November 2022 to June 2023 in Uttarakhand.
A total of 1,808.9 sq km of forest area in Uttarakhand was affected due to fire.
The neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh, which recorded only 704 forest fires in November 2023 to June 2024, saw the number rise sharply to 10,136 from November 2024 to June 2024. The hilly state this season has ranked eighth from rank 24 last season. A total of 783.11 sq km of forest area was estimated to be impacted due to fire.
Odisha, which recorded 20,973 incidents this season against 33,461 last season, ranked second, followed by Chhattisgarh (18,950), Andhra Pradesh (18,174), Maharashtra (16,008), Madhya Pradesh (15,878) and Telangana (13,479).
The FSI for the first time has estimated the extent of the forest area impacted due to forest fire. It showed that the maximum fire-affected area was recorded in Andhra Pradesh (5,286.76 sq km) followed by Maharashtra (4,095.04 sq km) and Telangana (3,983.28 sq km).
The report said certain regions are more susceptible to forest fires due to factors like climatic conditions like extreme heat and then the fire spreads to other parts of the forest due to the presence of fuel wood.
Based on susceptibility to fire, the FSI has declared 2,021 sq km of forest area in Uttarakhand under “very high risk” zone followed by 192 sq km in Himachal Pradesh and 62 sq km in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Nearly 11.34 per cent area of forest cover and scrub in the country is under extremely to very highly fire-prone zone. Parts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand show patches of extremely and very highly fire prone zones,” the report said.
Uttarakhand