Forest fires raging, with 165 incidents reported

 The situation of forest fires in the country is getting worse by the day. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority reports that wildfires are currently taking place 165 places in 39 districts as of today.

     With no forecast of immediate rain forest fires are likely to continue further. As the Weather Forecasting Division under the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology has said that there will be no rain in the coming few days that could help control the fire.

      Meteorologist Govind Jha of the Division said that there is probability of rain in some parts of the country for the next three days but it will not be enough to control the douse the forest fire. "There is a possibility of rains with partial showers in some hilly areas of Koshi, Gandaki and Karnali in the next few days", he said, "but the amount of rainfall that will control forest fires is not likely."

  Meanwhile, two people died in Lalitpur while trying to douse the fire in Tapeshwar Community Forest in Badikhel of Godavari Municipality-4.

     Sundar Sharma, an expert at the NDRRMA, said that it is difficult to control forest fires due to the lack of rain for a long time and drought. There are usually around 2,500 fire incidents in Nepal every year. "80 percent of forest fires occur in the four months from late March to late May. While 60 per cent of fire incidents occur between mid-April to mid-May. Hence, we are now in a high risk period", said Sharma.

Saying incidents of forest fire is increasing due to lack of sustainable management of forests, forest expert Dr Soni Baral Gauli stressed the need of management-oriented forest development rather than protection-oriented forest management.

Likewise, Forest officer at the Division Forest Office, Lalitpur, Thir Prasad Koirala shared that people light fires in forest to chase away wild animals to stop them from entering the village and attacking their cattle.

He further said the incidents of forest fire are increasing due to human reasons including throwing cigarette butt after smoking in the jungle and setting the jungle in fire intentionally to help grow grass faster.

Section 49 (d) of Forest Act has the provision that those involved in setting national forest in fire or involved in any fire-related incident would be punished. "Those involved in such activities will face three –year of imprisonment or Rs 60,000 fine or both', reads the Act.

Likewise, the forest fire management strategy-2067 has set a target of establishing and strengthening policy and organisational-level structures, mobilizing local community, civil society, government and non-government bodies and making preparedness to take pre information about the possible risk from wildfire to manage forest fire.

However, President of Federation of Community Forestry Users Nepal, Thakur Bhandari, points out to lack of effective implementation of the strategy. Some of the forest users have lost their lives in course of bringing the forest fire under control, he added, stating the government has to increase capacity on how to control fire incidents safely.