Mumbai has witnessed 1,110 forest fires in the last five years, burning down 6,533 hectares of land, a Right to Information (RTI) to Maharashtra Forest Department revealed.
Filed by Mumbai-based environment group Watchdog Foundation, the RTI revealed loss of forest resources amounting to Rs 90 crore. The RTI query revealed data on forest fires across Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Kolhapur, Nashik and Aurangabad regions between 2015 and 2019, Hindustan Times reported.
Over 95 percent fires in the state are man-made for agricultural and land acquisition purposes, a forest official told Hindustan Times.
“Small fires can rejuvenate forest undergrowth and replenish soil nutrients, but manmade fires have an adverse effect on plant, animal life, and can lead to soil erosion.”Shailesh Tembhurnikar, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (APCCF-comservation), State Forest Department
"We are monitoring fires with digitised maps from the Forest Survey of India (FSI) with real-time alerts being sent to our staff," HT reported, quoting MK Rao, APCCF (west), forest department.
Fires were mainly reported at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), Borivli, protected and reserved forests from the Tungareshwar wildlife sanctuary upto Tansa, including the Karnala bird sanctuary and Phansad wildlife sanctuary.
Nashik followed Mumbai in the highest number of fire incidents with 525 incidenets leaving 4,917 hectares charred and Rs 52.48 crore lost over five years. Thane and Kolhapur stand next in the list with 221 and 115 incidents with a total loss of around Rs 20 crore.
Pune has witnessed the least number of incidents with damage around 98.62 hectare forest area in 33 incidents.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times)
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