Personally overseeing steps to combat forest fires, Uttarakhand Chief Secretary tells Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday recorded the assurance given by Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Radha Raturi that she and her fellow officers were personally looking into efforts to prevent and combat forest fires in the State.

A Bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta asked the Chief Secretary to meet with Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and the court’s own amicus curiae to work out the modalities to resolve the problem of forest fires, which had recently claimed five lives in Uttarakhand.

The burning hills of Uttarakhand

In the previous hearing, the court had decided to examine if the Uttarakhand government had adopted a “lackadaisical” approach to dousing forest fires.

The Bench had asked the Uttarakhand Chief Secretary to be present in court on May 17 to explain the level of preparedness of the State in the face of forest fires.

The issues which were highlighted in the hearing included the release of only a little over ₹3.10 crore by the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority for 2023-24 when the Centre had allotted ₹9.13 crore; the alleged diversion of forest officials and fire personnel for election work; vacancies in the Forest department; measures taken to prevent the burning of pine needles and efforts taken so far to release the State Disaster Management Fund.

Praying for rain in Uttarakhand

The State had maintained that only .1% of the wildlife cover had been on fire though reports claimed 40% of Uttarakhand was ablaze.

It had said the forest fires were caused solely by humans. The State had maintained a high level of vigilance. The government counsel said there had been 398 incidents of forest fires since November 2023. The State had registered 350 criminal cases and 62 people had been named in them. The punishment, if found guilty, is up to two years’ imprisonment.