Only 0.1% wildlife cover was on fire, Uttarakhand govt tells SC

Uttarakhand's Deputy Advocate General (DAG) Jatinder Kumar Sethi contended that the phenomena of forest fires was not new to Uttarakhand and every summer the forest department deals with such fires.

New Delhi: The Uttarakhand government on Wednesday claimed before the Supreme Court that only 0.1 per cent of the wildlife cover in the state was on fire. It claimed that some sections of media had reported that 40% of Uttarakhand was burning because of forest fires, which was totally misleading.

"There were 398 forest fires from November 2023 till today. All of them man-made," Uttarakhand's Deputy Advocate General (DAG) Jatinder Kumar Sethi, submitted before a bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta.

He also contended that the phenomena of forest fires was not new to Uttarakhand and every summer the forest department deals with such fires.

"There are long term and short term plans in place which are scrupulously followed and that media hype was created due to one incident near the High Court colony close to the Air Force station housing radars," Sethi said.

He said the state government had declared a state disaster following which which the disaster action plan automatically stood activated and Airforce helicopters were requisitioned to drop water and douse the fires.

The court was hearing the matter related to forest fires in the state of Uttarakhand, on an application filed by senior advocate Rajiv Dutta who was appearing in person.

After hearing the state's response, the court sought to know whether Central Empowered Committee (CEC) could be roped in to assist in future, and posted the matter for further hearing on Wednesday, May 15.

During the hearing, the bench was not satisfied with the Uttarakhand government's submissions of cloud seeding, or rain, saying this was not the answer and it has to take preventive measures.

Sethi handed over a 380 page interim status report on behalf of the state government.

He also submitted that a Uttarakhand Forest Fire Mitigation Project 2023-28 was pending with the central government and Uttarakhand Forest Fire Management Plan 2024 was being acted upon.

He assured the bench that the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary were personally monitoring the situation daily and all top forest officers were in the field overseeing operations involving 7,500 personnel.

Sethi told the apex court that as all the fires were man-made, the state had registered 388 criminal cases in which 60 offenders were named. He also said steps were being taken to confiscate the property of repeat offenders.

Sethi submitted that NDRF 15th Battalion was stationed in the state and that the emergency situation was now over and as on Wednesday, only 15 small to intermediate fires were on which were being doused by QRT teams in place.