This year’s first major spell of rain has led to a few roads being blocked and water entering houses in some parts of Uttarakhand. A silver lining to the tragedy, however, is that fires raging in forests were doused in some of the places where the rainfall occurred.

A cloudburst in Someshwar in Almora district on Wednesday caused the destruction of crops and farmers with both small and large landholdings suffered losses. Water also entered several houses. Farmers in Pithoragarh have also demanded compensation from the government for crop losses caused by a hailstorm.  

In some parts of the Kumaon region, under which the Almora district falls, the rainfall led to forest fires being extinguished. 

In the Bageshwar district of the region, the heavy caused traffic jams in many places on the Kapkot Bageshwar road. Many people were also stuck while trying to cross a small stream that had a lot of water flowing in it because of the rain. 

Vehicular movement was also stopped in a market near the Purola Hudoli ravine in Uttarkashi district.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Supreme Court rapped the Uttarakhand government while hearing a petition on forest fires in the state and said the administration cannot depend only on rain and cloud seeding to control the blazes.

The government said only 0.1 per cent of the forest cover in the hill state was on fire. It also told the court that 398 incidents of forest fires were recorded and 350 cases have been registered. 

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Dehradun:

The forest fire in Uttarakhand’s Nainital became even more severe on Friday night with the flames reaching the High Court Colony.

In the last 24 hours, 31 new incidents of forest fire were reported from various parts of the state, destroying 33.34 hectares of forest land. Three persons were arrested in Rudraprayag on Friday while trying to set fire to the forests.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has asked the officials to remain on alert and take measures to prevent the fires by coordinating with all departments.

The fire that broke out in the forest near Nainital district headquarters took a horrific form, posing a threat to the residents of High Court Colony located in the Pines area. It also affected the traffic movement in the area.

Along with the forest department employees, army personnel are also trying to control the fire. Authorities may deploy helicopters to put it out.

Anil Joshi, a resident of the area and assistant registrar of the High Court said, “The fire has engulfed an old and vacant house located near The Pines. It has not caused any damage to High Court Colony but it has reached dangerously close to the buildings. Efforts are being made to control the fire since evening.”

In view of the possibility of the fire reaching the sensitive areas of the Indian Army located near the Pines, efforts are being made to extinguish the fire as soon as possible. The district administration has also banned boating in Naini Lake in view of the blaze.

Nainital Divisional Forest Officer Chandrashekhar Joshi said, “We have deployed 40 Manora Range personnel and two forest rangers to extinguish the fire.”

According to the daily bulletin issued by the Forest Department here, 26 incidents of forest fire occurred in the state’s Kumaon region in the last 24 hours, while five incidents occurred in Garhwal region, where 33.34 hectares of forest area was affected.

From November 1 last year till now, a total of 575 incidents of forest fire have been reported in the state, affecting 689.89 hectares of forest area and costing the state than Rs 14 lakh.

Meanwhile, three men were arrested and sent to jail for allegedly starting forest fires in two different areas of Jakholi and Rudraprayag.

Rudraprayag’s Divisional Forest Officer Abhimanyu in a press release said that the action was taken by a team formed to prevent forest fire.

Sheep herder Naresh Bhatt of Tadiyaal village of Jakholi was caught from the spot while setting a fire in the forest, he said.

During interrogation, Naresh Bhatt said he started the fire to grow new grass for grazing his sheep.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)