Uttarakhand has reported the highest number of forest fires this season and incidents have quadrupled, government data showed.
Forest fires have increased 14 times in Himachal Pradesh compared to the previous season.
The India Forest Report (ISFR) – 2023, released on Saturday, showed that Uttarakhand recorded 5,351 forest fires in the last season (November 2022 to June 2023), ranking 13th among all states.
This season, the number has reached 21,033, making it the state with the most wildfires.
Himachal Pradesh, which had 704 forest fires last season alone, has seen the number rise to 10,136 this season.
Odisha has recorded 20,973 cases this season compared to 33,461 last season, followed by Chhattisgarh (18,950), Andhra Pradesh (18,174), Maharashtra (16,008), Madhya Pradesh (15,878) and Telangana (13,479).
Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav, who released the report, said that the biggest problem of his ministry was forest fires.
Human factors such as persistent hot and dry weather due to climate change, as well as land conversion for agriculture, are the main factors contributing to the increase in forest fires.
Forest fires release greenhouse gases and carbon stored in trees, which contribute to global warming and environmental degradation.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2.5 billion to 4 billion tons of carbon dioxide is emitted annually from forest fires.
In India, the National Disaster Management Authority has recognized forest fires as a national disaster in 2019.
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