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Sholay, Dabangg dialogues to educate about forest fires in Uttarakhand
With lockdown relaxations and movement allowed in green zones from today, officials also fear that forest fire incidents could increase.
The Uttarakhand forest department is employing dialogues from hit Bollywood films like Sholay, The Dirty Picture, Dabangg, among others, to spread awareness about preventing forest fires.
The initiative is the brainchild of Rudraprayag divisional forest officer Vaibhav Singh.
Elaborating upon it, the officer said the main idea behind such awareness posters was to make people stop and read them so that they take the information back with them.
“Any awareness campaign should be catchy and attractive with the aim that people don’t easily forget the basic information. If people stop and watch for even once and then share it with others our job is done. We have been getting a very good response from locals since the posters were put up,” said Singh.
Around 1,500 posters have been made so far with almost 200-odd posters already placed in every forest range. The posters also give information on punishment for setting forests on fire, that is, a fine of ₹5,000 and imprisonment up to two years. It also has the fire control room numbers mentioned so that people can call and alert the department about any fire incident.
With lockdown relaxations and movement allowed in green zones from today, officials also fear that forest fire incidents could increase.
Uttarakhand has lost 11 hectares this year with 18 incidents of forest fire.
“We have been lucky till now because there have been rains every two-three days maintaining the moisture content, but now temperatures are rising. With the relaxations being given to people in the lockdown, there might be a probability of forest fires. With more and more people coming back to their villages, movement in forests has also increased,” added Singh.
The awareness posters are mostly being put up at markets and places where people go on a regular basis so that more people can see them.
Official records show that wildfire incidents this year had come down by over 50% till April amid the lockdown enforced to fight coronavirus.
Most cases of forest fire incidents in the state are man-made and the reduced number of cases are likely due to restricted movement of people in and near forest areas.
BK Gangte, nodal officer for forest fires in the state, said that cases of wildfires have been significantly less this year, but it cannot be said if it is an effect of the lockdown. The department is analysing the data, he added.
In Uttarakhand, 0.17% of total forest cover comes under the extremely fire prone category, 1.60% under very highly fire prone, 9.32% under highly fire prone, 21.66% under moderately fire prone and 67.25% under less fire prone category.
Since the formation of the state in 2000, over 44,554 hectares of the forest area has been damaged in forest fires accruing a loss of over ₹185 lakh, revealed an RTI reply by the state government last year.
The forest department has around 174 watchtowers and 1,437 station crew across the state to keep a tab on the forest fires and take measures to check them.
