Forest fires take toll on green gold in Kashmir

Ganderbal , Dec 5: Amid the dry weather conditions the increasing number of forest fire incidents in various areas of Kashmir is taking a toll on the green gold.

A huge number of trees including new saplings of herbs and shrubs (a woody plant which is smaller than a tree and has several main stems arising at or near the ground) get destroyed in number of forest fire incidents in several forest areas in the recent past.

On Wednesday, a huge area of forest compartment number 65 of Sindh forest range in block Gund area witnessed forest fire which spread rapidly causing apparent damage to a vast forest area. However with efforts from forest and forest protection employees the fire was to a large extent doused. The employees had to trek a long terrain braving difficult challenge to reach to the area to douse the fire that too manually without any proper fire fighting equipments.

The increasing number of forest fire incidents during past few years have proved very destructive to the green gold which is already facing a threat from the timber smugglers in the valley. Absence of immediate fire fighting measures, unavailability of any latest and modern equipments and techniques to combat these forest fires are taking heavy toll on the states green gold.

Despite lack of facilities the forest department officials control and douse the fire. The employees who go to the forest areas to douse forest fires at most of the time do it without any safety gears required during such operations. The department is also expected to have rapid response mechanisms to prevent forest fires from spreading. However usually it took many hours for the Forest Department to notice and mobilizs its men to respond to the fires. Forest fire incidents mostly occurred in rural and higher areas, and being in the interiors and upper reaches the forest department officials finds it very tough in dousing that the fire in which many of its employees and officials sustained injuries.

The dry spell remains a major cause to the increasing number of forest fire incidents. People believe that the Forest Department must invest in developing a response system which is quick, is able to mobilize manpower in a short span of time and has at its disposal all modern gadgets in containing the forest fires. Experts say there are two types of forest fires like ground fire and crown fire. “What we usually witness here is the ground fire, it arises at places where organic matter is heaped up and the litters catch fire. Such fires are subterranean, flameless and continue for a long period smoldering the organic matter. As a result, dehumification of the soil takes place while as in crown fire; It is the most destructive fire, generally caused by some physical reasons. It not only destroys the tree tops but also the entire vegetational cover,” said the officials.

Meanwhile, the department claim that they are always alert to tackle such incidents anywhere. "This is the forest department personnel that go to these areas and douse the fire. It takes some time to control the fire manually as there is no access to fire tenders and other equipments to these forests," said Assistant Director Forest protection force Ganderbal Muhammad Yousuf. . He further said that the long dry spell of weather lead to the increase in number of forest fire incidents.

"This is a risky job to douse fire in such circumstances, adding that these operations need brooming and brushing which many times has proved dangerous to our employees. However we ensure that the available resources and safety gears are made available to the employees while dousing the fire" the official told Greater Kashmir.

We mostly go with the traditional preventive measures involve cutting of forest firelines in the forest. In this method a strip of forest is cleared from the vegetation, which checks forest fire from spreading, cleaning of dry and dead vegetative material from the forest,” he said. The forest department has asked people to help in preventing forest fires and make their own contribution to environment.