235 places in Lumbini are still burning

4 people were injured in Gulmi, Palpa and Arghakhanchi on Saturday during fire control. More than 181 cattle have died in different districts and at least 222 houses have been burnt.

Last Monday, 58-year-old Mahele Gharti, who went to extinguish a fire in Sallaghari near Sarvodaya Mavi in ​​Musikot Municipality-1 Paundiamarai of Gulmi, died. The fire caused the most damage in Gulmi and Arghakhanchi. The Kapilvastu forest has caught fire the most. In the second is Rukum East.

According to Dilaram Poudel, the officer of the forest management and enterprise branch of the Ministry of Forestry, 12 thousand 619 hectares of forest has been destroyed by the fire. Most of the fires are in Kapilvastu at 2932 hectares and Rukum East at 2389 hectares. 1,813 hectares in Dang, 1,720 hectares in Arghakhanchi, 1,510 hectares in Gulmi, 853 hectares in Bardia, 230 hectares in Rupandehi and nearly 500 hectares in Palpa.

Paudel said that due to the rapid spread of the fire due to the wind, there were more fires in most of the districts of the province compared to last year. "There are more fires in the Chure area and hill communities," he said .

There are 24 municipalities in the Chure region from the south of Nawalparasi in West to Chisapani in Bardia in Lumbini province. Most of the forests at the local level are burning in Bhawar and Chure areas in the north from the east-west Mahendra Highway. Forests in these areas are subject to fire every year.

Raptisonari of Banke, Rajapur of Dang, Babai and Garhwa, Bhumikasthan of Arghakhanchi, Shitganga, Shivraj of Kapilvastu, Sunval of Nawalparasi, Devdah municipality of Ruppandehi said that forest and environment expert and scholar Yuvraj Kandel has seen the most fires in the last 5 years. He said that the change of human nature and the growth of bushes up to the settlements is another reason for the fires.

'Putha Uttarganga, which is in the highest region of the province and is getting colder, has been hit by fire every year,' he said, 'that means long drought, bush up to the settlement and human weakness.' He said that they would report to the police and start escaping.

In the current five-year plan of Lumbini province, fire lines and controlled burning have been made a major strategy to control forest fires. The division office has been assigned responsibility for fire prevention and control. There are 14 Divisional Forest Offices in 12 districts of Lumbini. Mohanraj Kafle, Secretary of the Ministry, said that the Ministry of Forestry is trying to control the increasing number of wildfires by analyzing the data from the satellite system.

The provincial government had allocated a budget of 48 million rupees last year to reduce the risk of wildfires by conducting an organic fertilizer production enterprise from Patpatingar and Sayula in the forest area in order to control and reduce the risk of wildfires. This is the budget of all 14 forest division offices. In the current year, only 1 crore 2 lakh rupees have been allocated for fire control.

Apart from that, it has spent about 50 million budget through the division office by holding a celebrity program with Forest. Under the same title, two weeks ago, the One Division office organized a program in Gulmi by taking comedian Manoj Gajurel. Ramprasad Neupane, a forest conservationist in Palpa, said that the forest protection and fire control program conducted by the forest office every year was not effective as intended.