KATHMANDU, March 17: Every day 59 forests on an average go up in flames across the country thanks to human negligence and apathy from the part of concerned authorities to control fire incidents. This has resulted in thousands of hectors of forests across the country being gutted every year.
Regional South Asia Wild Land Fire Network Foundation, which monitors wild fire in the South Asia region, said that 473 incidents of forest fire have been recorded in Nepal in the last one week."One child has already been killed this year in forest fire. Number of forest fire incidents will go up in the coming days as March, April and May are peak season of forest fire," Sundar Sharma, coordinator of the Foundation, said. He said that the number of fire incidents recorded in the last one week is the highest compared to the last eight year's data of fire between March 8 to March 16. The data show that the fire incidents have increased by 369 percent in a week compared to the incidents of the last eight years.
According to the data provided by Foundation, 59 fire incidents have been recorded last Tuesday, 102 on Wednesday, 97 on Thursday and Friday and 66 on Saturday. Likewise, 34 fire incidents were recorded on Sunday, 70 on Monday and 45 on Tuesday.
The foundation said that over 200,000 hector of forests are gutted by fire every year. Several study conducted by government as well as non government sector show that human negligence as the main cause behind forest fire. Some people intentionally set fire to the jungle for fodders. Dozens of people, livestock, wild animals and other species get killed in forest fires every year. In 2009, 59 people including Nepal Army personnel, who were deployed to douse fire, were killed.
Sharma said that awareness is needed to mitigate incidents of forest fire, but the concerned authorities show little concern for that.
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