Punish those behind forest fires with life term: BJP MP

BJP MP Tarun Vijay on Friday urged the central government to "enact a law to prescribe life imprisonment" for people found guilty of causing forest fires in the country and said forest mafias were responsible for the devastating Uttarakhand forest fire.

"The present forest conservation laws have not proved effective, hence the government should enact a new law to prescribe life imprisonment to culprits," the BJP's Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand said in a statement here.

He said that forest mafias were responsible for the devastating Uttarakhand forest fire, and they should be booked as murderers.

The culprits shouldn't be treated lightly, he demanded.

Vijay said that the forest mafia puts forests on fire for timber and other forest produce, endangering the lives of people, animals and birds.

The fire sometimes goes out of control as happened in Uttarakhand, which caused immense loss to human lives, flora and fauna.

He also expressed concern as no arrest was made till date in the forest fire case.

Incidents of forest fires that began 93 days ago have so far destroyed nearly 3,000 acres of forest cover in Uttarakhand.

--IANS

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