Centre closely monitoring forest fire incidents across the country: Bhupender Yadav

New Delhi: Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Tuesday said that the government is closely monitoring the status of forest fire incidents across the country.

The Union Minister also assured all possible assistance to the States. “The @moefcc is closely monitoring the status of forest fires across India for all possible assistance to the States” he tweeted.

The statement came after, India has seen a 115% increase in forest fires in the first 12 days of March due to a rise in the temperature in the month of February and to some extent in March.

He said the fire alerts are generated on a daily basis through remote sensing technology and locations are shared with States for mitigation.

Around 42,799 forest fires have been detected between March 1 and March 12 according to the satellite-based forest fire monitoring by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), the number is up from 19, 929 last year.

On Monday, 772 large forest fires were reported by FSI of which 202 were in Odisha; 101 in Mizoram; 43 in Assam; 21 over Maharashtra; 61 over Chhattisgarh; and 48 over Andhra Pradesh.

The country recorded 7.2 mm in February, the sixth lowest for the month since 1901 and the average maximum temperature was the highest in recorded history at 29.66 degrees .

According to India Meteorological Department (IMD) Central India recorded a 99% rain deficiency in the month; northwest India 76%; the southern peninsula 54%; and east and northeast India, 35 per cent.