New Delhi (Sputnik) - Sputnik understands from sources near the incident that the Uttarakhand forest fire is man-made was created to satisfy the greed for land. This opinion has been endorsed by the Principle Conservator of Forest, Mr Rajendra Mahajan, when he stated that most of these fires are intentional and man-made.
Some reports claim that cultivators and shepherds started the fire to create grassland for their herds. As there is illegal construction near to the forest areas, it may be that the construction lobby fueled the fire to encroach the land for further illegal construction in the hilly areas.
Indian Environment Minister Prakash Javdekar told Sputnik in an exclusive interview that, "There are many things going in the social media regarding the fire but our prime concern is to douse the fire and then we will analyze."
Our priority now is to control #UttarakhandForestFire. 6000 personnel have been deployed. pic.twitter.com/gvEsMt7VjL
— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) 1 May 2016
Javdekar further added that, "We will take cognizance of all inputs into consideration because that is important for investigation."
The Uttarakhand fire, which has been burning for over two months now, has caused massive damage to the flora and fauna of Uttarakhand.
Seven people, including a police officer, have lost their lives in the fire which has affected around 1,600 acres of land.
The Uttarakhand fire is an eye opener for the Indian government due to its long term ramifications. The environment ministry has plans to formulate a long term strategy to counter this disaster.
"We have asked for the geo-mapping of the fire sites, the coordinates will be recorded and we have our high resolution monitoring mechanism. So when the fire is doused, we will monitor if the thing are moving in right direction or not. So better compliance through better technology monitoring is what we are aiming at," Environment Minister Prakash Javdekar said exclusively to Sputnik.
