HYDERABAD: There has been a substantial increase in forest fire alerts in Telangana, revealed Minister of State for Environment Ashwini Kumar Choubey while responding to a question asked by TPCC president and Malkajgiri MP A Revanth Reddy in the Parliament on Friday.
The data provided by the Ministry showed that the number of forest fire alerts sent by FSI had increased from 12,927 in 2017 to 18,237 in 2021. Revanth Reddy sought to know whether the instances of forest fires in the State have increased as several hectares of forest land have been burnt down during the last five years. In his reply, Choubey said that the number of incidences of forest fire in the country varied from year to year, depending on various natural and anthropogenic reasons. He added that that the Forest Survey of India (FSI) sends forest fire alerts to all registered users on its alert system.
Answering another supplementary question, the Minister said, “As per the report received from the Government of Telangana, ground fire was observed with no damage to existing flora and fauna, including the National Animal - tiger - in the Amrabad Tiger Reserve.”