Uttarakhand HC seeks expert opinion on artificial rain to extinguish forest fires

Nainital, Nov 24 (PTI) After a joint hearing of several suo motu public interest litigations related to the recurring forest fires in the state, the Uttarakhand High Court has fixed November 28 as the next date of hearing and directed professor Ajay Rawat to join the proceedings via video conferencing to provide his expert opinion.

Earlier, the court had directed the state government to submit an action plan within two weeks.

During the hearing, a division bench of Chief Justice G Narendra and Justice Subhash Upadhyay issued several important directives to the state government, including filling vacant posts in the Forest Department within six months, empowering gram panchayats, and ensuring year-round monitoring of forests.

The court also asked whether artificial rain was possible given the state's geographical conditions.

The court had taken suo motu cognizance of the case, titled "In the Matter of Forest Area, Forest Health, and Wildlife Conservation," and had issued repeated directives to the state government in this regard.

Earlier, the court was informed about the increasing forest fires across the state and that the government was allegedly not taking concrete steps to control the situation, despite guidelines issued in 2016 to prevent forest fires.

The court had directed the formation of village-level committees to prevent and control forest fires.

The petition stated that although the government was using helicopters to extinguish fires, it was costly and not entirely effective. Instead, it suggested the formation of village-level committees for effective fire management. PTI DPT DIV MNK MNK