Worsening wildfires

Local tribes should be involved in forest upkeep and management

Wildfires have, typically, not been a major threat to forests in India. But their incidence, as also intensity, has tended to escalate in the recent past. Uttarakhand, the Himalayan state having over 70 per cent area under forests, has been the worst victim of jungle blazes. It has lost tree cover over 48,000 hectares in the past two decades. This year again, over 1,100 wild infernos have already been recorded, though the prime forest fires season of hot and arid May is yet to come. The state has received almost no rainfall since the last monsoon. Unless well-advised preventive measures