Uttarakhand forest fires | ‘Lackadaisical approach’: SC asks chief secretary to appear

The court also expressed its displeasure at the Centre for providing the state only Rs 3.15 crore to deal with the forest fires.

The bench said it is “at pains to say that the state’s approach in controlling forest fires was lackadaisical”.

On forest officials on election duties, Justice Gavai told the state government, “it appears you are finding one reason or the other. The EC has already granted exemption to forest department staff, so why have you taken them (for poll duty)?”

The state officials explained that some field officials were deployed on election duty in phase 1, and it is now over. They said that the chief secretary had written to district magistrates that forest officials be exempted from poll duty in view of the fact that fires are taking place.

The court also posed questions about the vacancies in the forest department. “Why are there so many vacancies?” asked Justice Gavai.

A senior official from the department answered “we had these vacancies for a long time. But for the last few years, we had been trying hard to fill them up. Last year, we could recruit 1,500 forest guards, etc, and we are hoping soon the state public services commission will start the process of recruiting rest”.

The state contended that forest fires were happening in other states too and added that there were currently three fires in Uttarakhand.

Justice Mehta said news reports indicated that of the 300-plus fires all over the country, 280 had occurred in Uttarakhand alone. He added that the reports also say the major cause is pine needles and asked what is the plan to remove them before the season sets in?

The state’s counsel said the government is promoting locals to collect it at a fixed price and that 2,300 metric tonnes had already been collected this year. Units for making pellets out of them are also operational, he pointed out.

The court said such eventualities will only increase in the future and that the state should be prepared to deal with them.