Following a plea raising concerns over incidents of forest fires in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir, the National Green Tribunal has sought a report from the Union Environment Ministry.
A bench headed by NGT judicial member S.P. Wangdi said, “The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) shall produce a data of incidences of forest fire in the last five years and identify the hotspots of such incidences.”
Additionally, the bench sought a report on the preventive steps taken by the Centre and the State governments in accordance with previous orders passed by the National Green Tribunal.
Directing authorities to file the report within 10 days, the bench directed the Inspector General of Forest (In charge, Forest Protection and Forest Fire) to be present before the tribunal on May 28.