Record number of forest fires imperil Himachal’s ecology

Himachal Pradesh recorded 2,763 incidents of forest fires this year from April 1 to June 30, which is the highest figure recorded by the state’s Forest Protection and Fire Control division, since 2007. While three forest officers lost their lives, over 23,000 hectares of forest area were affected. Senior forest officers state that dry weather spells and human negligence or wilful destruction could be the reasons for the fires. The local people see it as an outcome of large scale development projects. Mongabay India correspondent Vivek Gupta reports