UNI SPECIAL
By Ashok Chatterjee
Dehradun, June 3 (UNI) Tourists are heading to the hills in hordes. Uttarakhand, which has Nanda Devi (7,816m) and Nanda Kot (6,861), two prominent peaks apart from the Panchachuli peaks and Mt Trishul, is much sought after destinations in the summers.
While tourists are trying to avoid the heat of the plains, many of them want to see the snow-peaked Himalayan mountain ranges.
However, many visitors are returning disappointed. They complain of spending thousands of rupees to see the Himalayan peaks but can see none. Some also complain of unexpected heat in the mountains.
Reason: Forest fires are playing spoilsport.
The fires are not only generating excessive heat, it is also generating smoke, which is clouding the view of the mountain ranges.
As a tourist, I too was disappointed and felt the administration is not doing enough to check the fires in time. The enormity of the fires makes you think if they are all natural. Our taxi driver, Mr Chouhan, said many of these fires are fed by locals.
Most of the fires are in the Kumaon region.
A tourist from Palta, Barrackpore in West Bengal, Mr Das, had come to the hills with his family with the hope of seeing the Himalayan range. But he was devastated. "We had come all this distance (Binsar) to see the range. But what we see is smoke everywhere."
Another set of tourists, retired friends from Chandannagar, Hooghly, West Bengal, were visiting Chaukori with their wives just to see the Nanda Devi range. Armed with telly lens, they left disappointed. "Our dream of capturing the range in our cameras has remained a dream. The forest fires have ruined our visit."
Vivek Pandey, who runs a quaint little space with five-six rooms, Chestnut Grove in Vijaypur, says the fires have been a spot of bother not only for the tourists but also for nature lovers like him. "We get a lot of tourists who tell us they expected the weather to be cleaner and greener and the forest fires have ruined their visit. We have had incidents where the guests have checked out early as they had no sighting of the Himalayan ranges," Pandey said.
"At the Chestnut group, we have gone an extra mile to save the forests around us. On the other side, the ridge has seen growing of oak and rhododendron, which has grown on its own after we stopped the fires from happening," added the nature lover.
Pandey said that a couple of years back, some mischievous person had put on a fire near his place. He stopped it before it could become big, but that incident took him back by at least five years.
"It is disappointing for us, not only from the business point of view but also for our love for nature. Whenever we see or hear of a forest fire, we try to stop it on our own without bothering to call for any help," said Pandey.
Hemendra Bartwal, a political analyst and journalist, who has his ancestral house in Pouri town, under Pouri Garhwal district, agrees that each year the fires play havoc with the pollution and tourism.
He says during his childhood days the forest fires were very rare and never reached his house, which is very close to the forest. But in the last 10-15 years, these first fires have gone up manifold, he says, which is altering the climate of the area.
"The population has gone up. Many govt accommodations have come up in the forests after unrestricted cutting of trees. Vehicular traffic has also gone up, leading to pollution. Tourism infrastructure is crumbling. The dry grass forms a carpet on the ground and is unsuitable for the livestock. This carpet also restricts further growth of fresh grass, which is why the villagers burn the dry grass. After trains, fresh grass grows, which helps them feed their livestock," said Bartwal.
The veteran journalist says the govt has tried to tell the villagers that they should not put in these fires and also offered them with incentives but it has not worked.
"The timber mafia has its own agenda. Since cutting trees in the hills is a crime, the mafia encourages the burning of grass. When the grass burns, the pine tree roots and its base is also burnt to a certain extent. The trees become weak and fall. Then the forest dept auctions these trees, helping the timber mafia," adds Bartwal.
A massive fire had broken out in the forests of Ratmatiya and Bheta in Bageshwar in the last few days of last month.
Around 1.72 hectares of forest have been damaged by fires in 97 days. So far in the fire season, about one hectare of forest has been destroyed by fire. Meanwhile, 72 hectares of forest areas have been damaged by forest fire in the last two days till 21 May, said a report by Dainik Jagran. According to the state forest department more than 5,000 foresters are deployed to track and douse forest fires in the state. More than 400 hectares of forest land was affected by forest fires this summer season.
Now with the occasional rains, the fires have ebbed to a large extent.
UNI XC AAB