Rising Winter Wildfires | 04 Jan 2024

Why in News?

Uttarakhand is witnessing a rise in winter wildfires, a phenomenon that usually begins on November 1.

Key Points

• The Forest Survey of India (FSI), which is the apex body of the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC), has sent 1006 fire alerts to Uttarakhand from 1^st November, 2023 to 1^st January 2024. This number is significantly higher than the 556 fire alerts received during the same period in 2022.
  • Wildfires have been reported in districts, Uttarkashi, Nainital, Bageshwar, Tehri, Dehradun, Pithoragarh, Pauri, and Almora.
• Nainital experienced heightened forest fires on the first day of the year 2024. Villagers cite the absence of rainfall or snow in the last three months, making the region dry, as the reason for the same.
  • The fires can lead to increased human-wildlife conflicts, as animals venture out to the urban landscape to escape fire.
• Various reasons such as controlled burning by forest staff, agricultural residue burning by farmers, waste burning by villagers in barren land lead to the incidence of these forest fires.