INDIA Himachal Pradesh, 31 fires per day in the forests at the foot of the Himalayas

Unprecedented fires in terms of quantity and extent in the three months between April and June. In just 90 days, 0.45% of the entire territory burned. The forest department attributes it to drier weather and human neglect; but the local population considers that the fires are mainly the result of misguided development projects that upset the environmental balance.

Dharamsala () – The Himalayas are increasingly facing the disaster of fires, denounced the Division of Forest Protection and Fire Control of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh – where 66% of the territory is made up of forests – according to the data published these days by the Indian environmental site Mongabay. In the period between April 1 and June 30, 2022, the season in which the phenomenon of forest fires is usually more intense, 2,763 fires were registered in Himachal Pradesh, with an average of 31 fires per day.

These figures have not been seen since 2007, when this type of survey began. On the other hand, it is a number that by itself is already higher than the annual total of all previous years. Until now, in fact, the worst year for fires in Himachal Pradesh had been 2018/2019, when a total of 2,544 fires were registered.

The fires that occurred between April and June 2022 destroyed 23,239 hectares of forest area, which is equivalent to approximately 0.45% of the area of ​​Himachal Pradesh, causing damage estimated at 640 million rupees (almost 8 million euros). Of the total affected area, 18,600 hectares were part of natural forest areas and another 4,500 hectares were new plantations. During the work to extinguish these fires three members of the forestry department staff also died.

Forest department officials attribute the fires to increasingly dry weather (90% less rainfall than usual in April in Himachal Pradesh) and human negligence, but also to acts of intentional destruction. However, according to Mongabay, the local population considers the accidents to be the result of large-scale development projects that are upsetting the local ecological balance.