As many as 4578 incidents of forest fire have been reported in Jammu Kashmir in the past one decade.
“In J&K, 4578 forest fire incidents have been reported during last ten years, and on an annual average, a total area of 1273 hectare has been impacted,” official documents reveal.
However, the documents further reveal, that no major loss of forest property has been reported in J&K as most of the forest fires have been creeping and ground fires and have affected only the ground vegetation like shrubs, grasses or natural vegetation.
It is worthwhile to mention that as per the India State of Forest Report, 2019, about 97 % of forest area in J&K falls in “less fire-prone’’ class only about 3 % falls in the “moderately fire-prone” class.
There is negligible/nil area under extremely fire-prone, very highly fire-prone and highly fire-prone class in J&K, the report states.
The documents further state that J&K authorities propose to create/ maintain 171.27 kilometers fire line in vulnerable areas to control spread of forest fires, besides engagement of seasonal fire watchers.
“Fire control rooms are established to deal with the emergency situations,” the document states—(KNO)