The Uttarakhand government apprised the Supreme Court on Wednesday about the steps taken to control the raging forest fires and said 0.1 per cent of the wildlife cover in the state was on fire due to such incidents.
The state government told a bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta that from November last year, there have been 398 forest fires in the state and all of those were man-made.
Besides apprising the bench of several other steps taken by the government, the state’s counsel said 350 criminal cases have been lodged in connection with forest fires and 62 people named in those.
“People say 40 per cent of Uttarakhand is on fire,” the counsel said, adding that only 0.1 per cent of the wildlife cover in the hill state was on fire. The lawyer also placed an interim status report before the bench.
During the hearing, the bench observed that cloud seeding or “depending on rain god” is not the answer to the issue and the state has to take preventive measures.
The bench, which was hearing a matter related to forest fires in the state, has posted it for further hearing on May 15.
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