TRISHULI (NUWAKOT), March 24: A forest area spanning around 2,000 ropanis of land (1.02 square kilometers) was damaged by a recent wildfire in Nuwakot. The fire has its direct implications for forest products as well as the wildlife. 

The fires that started and spread since the third week of February ravaged forest areas across all 12 local units in the district, Division Forest Officer Roshana Pokharel said. As she said, the preliminary estimate is that the fire spread to 28 community forests and a national forest as well. 

The escalating frequency of forest fires in the district has prompted the authorities concerned to take proactive measures to mitigate the situation and create public awareness on its consequences. This year, a larger area of forest was damaged by wildfires than last year.  The lack of winter rainfall and human negligence and error are attributed to this situation. 

The Office has recruited 10 'green volunteers' and mobilized them to implement preventive measures against possible forest fire during the dry season. 

Office information officer Raj Kumar Yadav said local community forest users are also being encouraged to take part in efforts aiming to minimize the risk of forest fires. The public awareness program is targeted at making citizens aware of legal provisions against those responsible for causing wild fires. 

In some areas, forest fires were deliberately set and the Office is searching for alleged offenders. The law has the provision of a three-year jail sentence and a fine of Rs 60,000 for those guilty of deliberately causing forest fires. 

There are around 400 community forests, national forests and private forest in Nuwakot and over 40,000 households have been directly benefited from them.

(RSS)