1,243 forest fire incidents reported in J&K in 2024-25 fiscal: Minister Javed Rana to Assembly

Jammu: As many as 1,243 forest fires were reported in Jammu and Kashmir in the 2024-25 financial year, more than double than the previous fiscal but almost identical compared to 2022-23, Forest Minister Javed Ahmad Rana has said.

However, most of the incidents are ground fires where only grass and bushes get burnt and tall trees are not affected, he said in a written reply to an unstarred question by the BJP's Balwant Singh Mankotia in the Legislative Assembly here on Saturday.

The minister said a total of 1553 incidents of forest fire were reported, covering an area of 2774.213 hectares, in the 2022-23 financial year but the number dropped to 607 over an area of 987.24 hectares in 2023-24.

In the current financial year till March 19, the number of forest fires was 1,243 over an area of 3,503.70 hectares, Rana said.

He said the forest fire and its mitigation is a top priority of the Jammu and Kashmir forest department and it has taken a number of steps like the constitution of a state-level monitoring committee for forest fire to review the progress.

The Jammu and Kashmir Forest Policy of 2011 envisages ecological restoration of forests which will have mitigating effects on climate change, while the forest department has also prepared the state action plan on forest fire (SAPFF) for a period of 20 years, the minister said.

Rana also said that the government has been providing funds under the centrally sponsored scheme CAMPA and forest fire prevention and management from Union Territory resources.

On forest clearance for developmental projects, he said prior to the introduction of the PARIVESH Portal, forest clearances for 1,690 cases were sanctioned under the Jammu and Kashmir Forest (Conservation) Act, 1997, applicable in the erstwhile state of J-K.

After the introduction of the PARIVESH portal by the Union government, since August 2019, a total of 2,743 proposals have been uploaded on PARIVESH as of March 20, 2025, for forest clearance by the various user agencies under the provisions of the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan)Adhiniyam, 1980, he said.

Rana said the stage-II approval was accorded to 522 cases involving a total of 636.337 hectares of forest land, while the stage-I approval was accorded to 1,151 cases involving 1453.118 Hectares of forest land.

As many as 1,070 cases are under process at different levels, he said.

To check deforestation, Rana said 1.17 crore saplings were planted or distributed in the current financial year compared to 1.63 crore in the previous year.