Page 2 - Forest Fires

Over 100 firefighters battle blazes on South Africa's Table Mountain

More than 100 firefighters battled two blazes on the slopes of South Africa's Table Mountain on Wednesday, and national parks authorities said they were starting to bring them under control after the fires threatened to move toward nearby Cape Town. South African National Parks, which manages the mountain, said 115 firefighters, four helicopters and two planes had been deployed and there had been significant progress. The fires have burned since at least Sunday on the flat-topped mountain that overlooks Cape Town. A meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from Group of 20 countries began Wednesday in the city and was due to continue Thursday. There was no danger to the gathering. Fires are common in the Cape Town region in the hot, dry summer months between December and April, when they are often fed by strong coastal winds. A fire on Table Mountain in 2021 was the worst in recent years and burned down historic buildings at the University of Cape Town and forced ...

Fire at California battery plant forces evacuation, highway closure

A major fire burning Friday at one of the world's largest battery storage plants in Northern California is sending up flames of toxic smoke, leading to the evacuation of 1,700 people and the closure of a major highway. The blaze in Moss Landing started Thursday. Fire crews were not engaging with the fire but were waiting for it to burn out on its own, The Mercury News reported. The blaze was still burning early Friday and it had not gone beyond the facility, according to Monterey County spokesperson Nicholas Pasculli. As of late Thursday, a few dozen people were at a temporary evacuation centre and the rest had gone to friends or family or made other arrangements, Pasculli said. The Moss Landing Power Plant, located about 77 miles (125 kilometres) south of San Francisco, is owned by Texas-based company Vistra Energy and contains tens of thousands of lithium batteries. The batteries are important for storing electricity from such renewable energy sources as solar energy, but if the

LA wildfires: 24 deaths, fire tornado & 12,000 damaged structures. Updates

Los Angeles fires: While the exact cause of the fires is yet to be determined, early estimates suggest that economic damages and losses could range between $135 billion and $150 billion

New fires, National Guard and burnt properties: What is happening in LA?

LA wildfire: The Pacific Palisades Fire, which has consumed over 19,000 acres, ranks among the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles' history

Statsguru: India's forest and tree cover at 25.17% of total land area

Forest fire detections saw a considerable drop from the 2020-21 cycle. Odisha and Madhya Pradesh witnessed the bulk of forest fire incidents

67% of major forest fires in 2023-24 doused within 24 hours, shows data

In the 2023-24 forest fire season, the total number of fires detected by the Forest Survey of India was 2,03,544, while in the previous 2022-23 season the number stood at 2,12,249

Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh record sharp rise in forest fires: ISFR

Uttarakhand reported the highest number of forest fires this season, with incidents rising fourfold, according to government data. Himachal Pradesh witnessed a 14-fold increase in forest fires compared to the previous season. The India State of Forest Report (ISFR) - 2023, released on Saturday, showed that Uttarakhand recorded 5,351 forest fires in the last season (November 2022 to June 2023), ranking 13th among all states. This season, the number surged to 21,033, making it the state with the most forest fires. Himachal Pradesh, which recorded only 704 forest fires last season, saw the number rise sharply to 10,136 this season. Odisha, which recorded 20,973 incidents this season against 33,461 last season, ranked second, followed by Chhattisgarh (18,950), Andhra Pradesh (18,174), Maharashtra (16,008), Madhya Pradesh (15,878) and Telangana (13,479). Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, who released the report, said forest fires were the biggest problem confronting his ...

Landscape fires reason for 90% pollution related deaths globally: Study

Over 90 per cent of the global deaths per year linked to air pollution from landscape fires were in low and middle-income countries, including India, according to a study published in The Lancet journal. Other countries with the highest burdens of disease due to landscape fires, including wildfires, were China, Indonesia and those in the sub-Saharan Africa. The findings highlighted geographic and socioeconomic inequalities in how landscape fires affect public health, an international team of researchers, including those from Monash University, Australia, found. Landscape fires occur in natural and built-up settings and can include both forest fires and those caused due to human activities. Most of the resulting deaths are related to the air pollution caused due to such fires, contributing to long-term cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses. The study attributed roughly 0.45 million deaths a year to heart-related conditions and about 0.22 million deaths annually to respiratory ...

Lack of infrastructure in U'khand to manage forest fires: Report to NGT

Uttarakhand suffers from a glaring lack of essential infrastructure required for effective forest fire management, an amicus curiae report in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said on a matter regarding leaf burning in the Badkot forest range along the Rishikesh-Dehradun Road. Earlier in April, the NGT appointed advocate Gaurav Bansal as the amicus curiae (friend of the court) to assist with the case. The report, dated October 14 and submitted to the NGT last week, said it was imperative to address the critical deficiencies and violations hindering effective forest fire management in the state. "The state of Uttarakhand suffers from a glaring lack of essential infrastructure required for effective forest fire management. This includes a shortage of firefighting equipment (such as protective goggles, protective gears, weapons etc.), insufficient patrolling vehicles to access remote areas, and a dearth of communication devices such as wireless and satellite phones essential for ...

Man accused of starting California wildfire by throwing firework from car

A 26-year-old man has been accused of igniting a destructive California wildfire in early July by throwing a firework from a car window during hot, dry and windy weather. Spencer Grant Anderson, of Oroville, was charged Monday after weeks of continuous surveillance by investigators, the Butte County District Attorney's Office said. The Thompson fire scorched nearly 6 square miles (15.5 square kilometres), destroyed 13 homes and damaged others in the Oroville area of the northern Sacramento Valley. Anderson was jailed on a no-bail hold after appearing in court to face charges including arson of an inhabited structure, arson of forest land, and arson causing multiple structures to burn, the prosecutor's office said in a statement. Anderson will return to court Wednesday to set further dates to enter a plea and for pretrial hearings, the office said. It was a long investigation, there was a lot moving parts to it, Larry Pilgrim, Anderson's attorney, told The New York Times. He is jus

Record-breaking wildfires scorch more than 1.4 million acres in Oregon

Wildfires in Oregon have burned more acres of land in 2024 than in any year since reliable records began, authorities said Friday, with the mid-August peak of fire season still on the horizon. Blazes have scorched more than 1.4 million acres, or nearly 2,200 square miles (5,700 square kilometers), Northwest Interagency Coordination Center spokesperson Carol Connolly said. That's more than any other year since 1992, when reliable records began to be kept, she said, and surpasses the previous record set in 2020. Connolly said 71 large fires have burned the vast majority of the land this year. Large fires are defined as those that consume more than 100 acres (40 hectares) of timber or more than 300 acres (120 hectares) of grass or brush. Thirty-two homes in the state have been lost to the fires, she said, which have been fueled by high temperatures, dry weather and low humidity. They have prompted evacuation notices across the state and largely torched rural and mountain areas, althou

Wildfire north of Los Angeles spreads as authorities evacuate 1,200 people

Authorities evacuated at least 1,200 people on Saturday as a wildfire in Los Angeles County spread over thousands of acres near a major highway and threatened nearby structures, officials said. The blaze being called the Post Fire burned more than 3,600 acres (5.6 square miles or 14.5 square kilometers) near the Interstate 5 freeway in Gorman, about 62 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. California State Park Services evacuated 1,200 people from the Hungry Valley recreation area in Gorman and both Hungry Valley and the Pyramid Lake reservoir were closed as a result of the fire threat, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said in an 8 p.m. update. The flames broke out at around 1:45 pm, authorities said. The fire was moving southeast toward Pyramid Lake and crews were constructing perimeter fire lines while aircraft worked against limited visibility to stop the fire's progress, the fire department

1,038 forest fires reported this summer in Himachal, 38 FIRs registered

Twenty-five forest fires were reported in Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday, taking the number of such blazes during this summer season to 1,038 so far, officials said. Property worth about Rs 3 crore has been damaged, they said. However, no casualty was reported, said Assistant Chief Conservator of Forests Pushpinder Rana. "We have over 3,000 local field officers and holidays of staff have been cancelled," he told PTI, adding that 18,000 volunteers of the state disaster management authority are rendering help and 'aapada mitra' (volunteers for disaster response) have also come forward to help the forest department in dousing the fire. "So far 38 FIRs have been registered and 600 complaints have been given to the police for investigation and action against offenders, and we have also asked the general public to share photos and videos if they see someone lighting fire in the forests," he added. Himachal Pradesh's Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Rajiv Kumar attributed the forest

'Over 5 mn large farmland trees vanished in India between 2018 and 2022'

More than 50 lakh large farmland trees vanished between 2018 and 2022 in India, partly due to altered cultivation practices, revealing a "concerning trajectory," new research published in the journal Nature Sustainability has found. Researchers said that "an observable trend was emerging" wherein agroforestry systems are being replaced with paddy rice fields, even as a certain loss rate could be found to be natural. Large and mature trees within these agroforestry fields are removed, and trees are now being cultivated within separate block plantations typically with lower ecological value, they said. Block plantations, usually involving fewer species of trees, were found to have increased in numbers which some villagers from Telangana, Haryana, Maharashtra and other states confirmed via interviews. The team, including researchers from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, explained that the decision to remove trees is often driven by perceived low benefits of the trees, coupled wi

SC slams U'khand for 'lackadaisical' approach in controlling forest fires

Slamming the Uttarakhand government for its "lackadaisical" approach in controlling forest fires, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the state's chief secretary to personally present himself before it on May 17 to give explanation, including on utilisation of funds and vacancies in forest department. Terming it a "very sorry state of affairs", the apex court said the state was just trying to find some excuse or the other. A bench headed by Justice B R Gavai directed that the staff and vehicles of the forest departments of states shall not be requisitioned for election purposes or any other purposes like the 'Char Dham Yatra'. "We are at pains to say that the approach of state of Uttarakhand in controlling the fires is, to say the least, lackadaisical. Though action plans have been prepared and finalised, no steps are being taken for implementation of the same," said the bench, also comprising Justices SVN Bhatti and Sandeep Mehta. The top court was hearing a plea on raging for

Forest fires: SC bats for preventive steps, says cloud seeding no solution

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said cloud seeding or "depending on rain god" is not the answer to the raging forest fires in Uttarakhand and that authorities will have to take preventive measures to tackle the problem. The Uttarakhand government apprised the apex court about the steps taken to control the forest fires and said 0.1 per cent of the wildlife cover in the state was on fire due to such incidents. The state government told a bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta that since November last year, there were 398 forest fires in Uttarakhand and five people were killed in such incidents. Deputy Advocate General of Uttarakhand Jatinder Kumar Sethi told the court that all the fires were man-made. A total of 350 criminal cases have been lodged in connection with the forest fires, he said, adding that 62 people have been named in those. "People say that 40 per cent of Uttarakhand is on fire, whereas 0.1 per cent of the wildlife cover was on fire. And all this was man-made.

Why is Uttarakhand up in flames? Key details about the state's forest fires

Five lives have been lost so far due to out-of-control wildfires in Uttarakhand, which started more than a week ago and have now spread to several regions in the state

India lost 38,100 hectares of tree cover to forest fires in over 2 decades

Globally, 2023 stands out as the year with the highest tree cover lost due to fires

Nainital forest fire: CM Dhami vows action against officers responsible

Chief Minister Dhami emphasized the need for a unified effort, urging all institutions, including locals, to lend their support in combating the blaze.

Nainital forest fires: Why forest fires are so common in Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand's lush landscapes are under siege by raging forest fires sweeping through the Nainital, Haldwani, and Ramnagar regions. This Friday alone, the fires claimed over 108 hectares