Deputy advocate general of Uttarakhand Jatinder Kumar Sethi told the bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta that since Nov last year, there have been 398 such incidents, all caused by human activities, leading to five fatalities.
Supreme Court
, while hearing a plea filed by Dehradun-based advocate Rituparn Uniyal, seeking immediate action to safeguard the region’s forests, wildlife, and birds from the devastating impact of
wildfires
, told the state govt on Wednesday that “cloud seeding or depending on rain god is not the answer” to the raging
forest fires
and the authorities will have to take preventive measures to tackle the problem.
In response, the state govt informed apex court about steps taken to control the forest fires and said that “only around 0.1 % of the wildlife cover in the state was on fire due to such incidents.”
Deputy advocate general of Uttarakhand Jatinder Kumar Sethi told the bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta that since Nov last year, there have been 398 such incidents, all caused by human activities, leading to five fatalities.
The applicant told the bench that the state is painting a “very rosy picture”, but media reports claim that the state machinery is preoccupied with election duties rather than firefighting efforts. The petitioner called for the central and state govts, as well as the principal chief conservator of forests in the hill state, to establish pre-fire strategies and a policy framework to mitigate such disasters, underscoring the vital role forests and wildlife in maintaining the ecological balance, economic health and social fabric of the hilly regions.
The court has scheduled further hearing on May 15.
