NEW DELHI: Adding to the growing lists of tragedies that have hit us this year, a devastating forest fire has engulfed part of the Uttarakhand state forest for last few days now. As the state grapples with the Covid-19 pandemic, the authorities are carefully deploying their firefighting missions in order to avoid casualties, from the forest fires as well as corona. The reports have suggested that nearly 46 forest fires have been taken place in the state. 51.43 hectares of the forest has been burnt off. The Kumaon region is the worst hit area as almost 24 cases have been registered from there. The outbreak was first reported from 3 kms away from Srinagar city, the forest department team confirmed on May 23, the day when the outbreak began.
Although, the images of the devastation in Uttarakhand have spread on social media like wildfire, officials from the government and the chief minister himself have claimed that the images used are misleading and are hyping up the severity of the situation. ‘Some people have spread rumours on social media that massive fire has broken out in forests of Uttarakhand. It’s not true. Photos being shown belong to 2016 when massive had broken out, some photos from foreign countries have also been used’, Ashok Kumar DG (law and order), Uttarakhand, told a news agency. Uttarakhand CM himself take to the twitter to deny the reports. He said on twitter that the situation is pretty much under control and false information has been spread. “A misleading propaganda, using old pics of forest fires of 2016 & 2019 & that of forest fires in Chilean & Chinese forests, is raging on SM (Social Media). I req[uest] everyone to not believe such motivated campaign. Fire incidents reported until yesterday is way less than PY,” he said.