Uttarakhand Forest Fires – Environment Emergency or Social Media Hype

The country is going through major economic and health crisis caused because of COVID-19 outbreak. While the country is still struggling to cope with this, another tragic problem has emerged in the state of Uttarakhand in the form of forest fires.

A fire broke out on 24^th May 2020 in Srinagar of Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand state. Rising temperatures and heatwaves caused these fires and the super-hot winds have been responsible for its rapid spread. About 46 forest fires have been reported in the last four days and incurred the loss of 1.32 lakhs. As per the data from the forest department, nearly 62 hectares of forest land has been affected by these fires since last week of April.

Knowing the Facts

The fires have caused havoc on social media with a trending hashtag #PrayForUttarakhand. People are comparing these fires to Australia Wildfires experienced earlier this year, and forest fires in Amazon that cause a huge loss to flora and fauna. While the many species have been adversely affected in the Uttarakhand forest fires, the phenomenon is not entirely new.

According to the Forest Department, compared to the last few years, the number of forest fires witnessed in this year is among the lowest. The department has also added that no abnormal fire incidents have been observed in the region.

Amitabh Joshi, an official in the Uttarakhand forest department has said, “The forest fires this year is at a record low in Uttarakhand with 62 hectares of forest area affected over the last one month. Compare this to 2019, when nearly 1,600 hectares of area was affected due to forest fires during summer, this year’s trend is very encouraging. The photos circulating in social media are old once from previous years.”

Many experts have also confirmed these happenings and expressed concerns over the misleading messages spreading on social media.

#PrayForUttarakhand | Foresy department conservator in Uttarakhand gave update on the situation:

– These fires are regular and this year they are reduced

– Fires are being handled effectively

– Pictures & videos circulating on social media are mostly not related to Uttarakhand pic.twitter.com/HxN7PNaaVN

— An Open Letter ? (@AnOpenLetter001) May 27, 2020

Forest fires are a natural phenomenon that rejuvenates the forest & they happen every year..as per my research, this year #forestfires have been relatively low in #Uttarakhand so far..pls don’t compare them to Australia & the Amazon & spread panic ??#PrayForUttarakhand #FakeNews pic.twitter.com/F5oHGnit3D

— Randeep Hooda (@RandeepHooda) May 27, 2020

Let me tell you something. Fire are an important part of forest ecosystem. Part of life cycle. Problem is when they are uncontrolled & high in number. This is a good year. Fire numbers are very low & situation is under control. Don’t go with social media things. https://t.co/I1RRR101RF

— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) May 26, 2020

Threats of Rising Temperatures

Forest fire is a natural phenomenon – as natural as climate change. They are mainly caused during the dry seasons and often helps the forests to regenerate themselves. However, these fires are often going out of control as the temperature continues to rise. The risk to life, property and biodiversity is very huge. Therefore, it is important to ensure that appropriate measures are taken to curtail these fires and necessary systems are installed in place to minimise the loss caused because of these fires.

Most importantly, it is important to take hardcore actions to check global warming, which is the root cause of these problems.