Precious forests should be saved from hazards of fire, says SC

New Delhi: Precious forests should be saved from the hazards of forest fires, the Supreme Court said on Friday and termed the litigation concerning recent blazes in Uttarakhand as not "adversarial".

A bench of justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta observed that everybody was interested only in "protecting the forests".

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Uttarakhand government, informed the apex court about various aspects, including utilisation of funds for preventing and controlling forest fires, filing up vacancies in forest department and providing necessary equipments for fire fighting.

When Mehta told the bench about equipment being provided for fire fighting, the bench observed, "While statistics are filed, there are images and interviews of your forest guards. They are dousing the fire by using banana leaves. It is a fact which no one can deny."

"We are asking questions from what we have read in the reports with images," the bench said.

Mehta said, "I am not undermining whatever is printed in the media, but sometimes it may be a little hazardous to completely go by them."

He said some of the photographs shown in the reports were of forest fires in California.

"There has to be a system whereby these equipment have to be distributed in advance. If they are just lying in stocks, what is the use then," the bench observed.

Mehta said 40,184 different equipment have been provided to the field crew teams of 1,429 crew stations in the state.

He also apprised the bench about a scheme where villages, were no forest fire are reported, gets some incentive.

During the hearing, Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Radha Raturi was also present in the court. Deputy advocate general Jatinder Kumar Sethi also appeared for the state along with the solicitor general.

The top court was hearing an application filed by senior advocate Rajiv Dutta, who is assisted by advocate Neha Singh, on raging forest fires in Uttarakhand.

The bench noted the solicitor general has placed on record a report prepared by the chief secretary on behalf of the state.

"As has been stated earlier, the present litigation is not an adversarial litigation. The only concern is that the precious forest should be saved from the hazards of forest fires," it said.

The bench noted the solicitor general has assured that the chief secretary along with other senior officers were personally looking into this issue and trying to find out a permanent solution for avoiding forest fires and bringing them under control at the earliest.

"We appreciate the stand taken by the state," it said.

The bench said one of the issues raised earlier before it was regarding utilisation of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds.

On May 15, the apex court had asked the chief secretary to explain why from the CAMPA fund, only Rs. 3.4 crore was released for the financial year 2023-24, when the Union of India had sanctioned Rs 9.12 crore.

During the hearing, Mehta said, "It was fully utilised."

He said for 2023-2024, Rs 8.96 crore was approved by national CAMPA for various activities related to forest fire and its prevention and control and the entire money was utilised last year itself.

On the issue of vacancies in forest department, Mehta said as on July 1 last year, the total vacant position of field staffs was 1,709.

He said during the last one year, 1,252 front line field staffs have been appointed.

Mehta said as of May 1, there are 942 vacancies of which 715 vacant posts are of direct recruits, that is, range officers, forest guards etc and requisition proposal to the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission and Uttarakhand subordinate service selection commission has been sent.

He said over and above the regular staffs for the current fire season, additional work force by engaging fire watchers and other daily wagers have been deployed for forest fire fighting.

He said the state has notified a policy for electricity generation from Pine needles and other bio-mass and six electricity generation units were established in different districts of the state.

Mehta said for promoting the collection of Pine needles, Rs 3 per kg was being provided to the local collectors and the state has entered into an agreement with NTPC where Pine needles are supplied and are being used as fuel.

He also answered the court's query about why forest personnel were deployed on election duties, in spite of their being a specific exemption issued by the Election Commission.

He said certain field officials of the forest department were engaged in election duty due to shortage of government staffs in the districts concerned.

Mehta told the court that he, the state chief secretary, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, who is appearing for the Centre, and advocate K Parameshwar, assisting the bench as an amicus curiae in the matter, will sit together and work out strategy on these issues.

"Everybody is interested only in protecting the forests," the bench said and posted the matter for hearing in September.

The status report submitted by the state said that for 2024-25, out of the National CAMPA sanctioned amount of Rs 10 crore, Rs 5.25 crore stood released for firefighting measures and the remaining Rs 4.75 crore is ear-marked for carrying out forest fire prevention and control works to be implemented in winter months before next fire season, 2025.