NEW DELHI: Uttarakhand in the first five days of this month has reported 261 forest fire incidents covering over 413 hectares of area with one-third of the incidents, covering 165 hectares of land, being reported within the past 24 hours.
Though three animals were burnt to death in these incidents within 24 hours, there was no human casualty so far from the current forest fire incidents in the state as on Monday evening.
Union environment ministry officials who got details of these incidents from the state on Monday claimed that there was no ‘crown fire’ - it means the ongoing forest fire did not spread from treetop to treetop and thus mostly confined to surface areas.
Out of 261 incidents, the highest 193 were reported from the Garhwal region of the state in the past five days. This region witnessed 74 of the total 85 incidents of forest fires in the past 24 hours.
“A fact-finding team from the state is trying to find out the exact cause of these forest fires,” said an official, noting that the region is known for reporting such incidents during the beginning of the summer season due to multiple reasons including human activities.