By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi Sunday expressed his serious con-cerns over increasing incidents of forest fires in different parts of the country.
The President said that such fire incidents were causing huge financial loss to the nation as it deprived the effectees of their livelihood, put the life and properties of the inhabitants at high risk, destroyed local fauna and flora, besides worsened the negative effects of the climate change.
The President advised the authorities concerned to refocus on the pre-vention of wildfire strategies by strengthening coordination among themselves.
He also called upon making of investments in fire suppression and pre-vention mechanisms, implementing of the existing fire management techniques by improving wildfire data collection and analysis and strengthening of stakeholders’ coordination and preparedness.
The President observed that most of the forest fire incidents were pre-ventable as 85 percent were caused when the campfires and burning de-bris had been left unattended.
The use of the equipment and its malfunctions, carelessly discarded ciga-rettes while intentional acts of arson were some of the other causes, he added.
He said these incidents could be prevented by taking simple precautions including reporting of unattended fires to the authorities, and extinguish-ing fire pits and campfires when done.
Moreover, the ignited cigarettes should not be thrown out of the moving vehicles whereas caution be taken when using flammable liquids or fire-works, he advised.
The President further said that regrettably, the wildfire disturbed flora and fauna, eliminated wild animals, destroyed the habitats of birds and harmed the fertility of the soil which hampered the growth and composi-tion of vegetation, besides increasing the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, resulting in the emission of greenhouse gases.
The President’s concern comes after wildfires erupted in Swat, Buner, Shangla, Khwazakhela, Timargrah and Lower Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Forestry Environment & Wildlife Department tweeted.
Wildfires in the Marghazar mountains of Swat, a tourist hotspot, contin-ued to rage for the second day on Sunday, as teams of Rescue 1122 and the forest department amped up their efforts to extinguish the blaze.
According to a spokesperson of the rescue department, Shafiqa Gul, the fire erupted in the jungles as well as on the mountain range on Saturday. “Immediately after we received the news, a team of 45 firefighters was dispatched to the site,” she said.
Meanwhile, reports revealed that over 200 wildfires damaged forests and pastures over an area of 14,430 acres in various districts of the prov-ince during the past two weeks.
According to an investigation by the provincial forestry, environment and wildlife department conducted between May 23 and June 9, of the 210 wildfire incidents, some 55 blazes were started intentionally by local people and 12 were ascribed to dry weather conditions while the cause of another 143 blazes was unknown.
A spokesperson for the department, Latifur Rehman, told media that ru-mours had been circulating in the affected areas that the government would pay compensation for any damage to forests due to wildfires.
Quoting reports received from divisional forest staff members, he said it was rumoured that the government would pay Rs100,000 for a green tree torched in the forest fire, insisting there were no facts in such re-ports. He added that these rumours led to the 55 fire incidents started by people.
