Amid the rising COVID-19 scare with the number of positive cases crossing 1.46 lakhs, another devastating news has hit India. Wildfires have broken out in Uttarakhand bringing the total number of forest fire incidents in the state up to 46 in five months of 2020. Due to the rising temperature, the fires have intensified in the last four days and could not be contained due to the winds. Almost 52 hectares of the state’s forest cover has been lost and two casualties have been reported so far.
Pictures circulating on Twitter are devastating:
#Uttarakhand is burning 46 wildfire incidence around 51.34 hectares ,71.05 repository of herbs and wildlife diversity are affected. Australia incident made us sad and should have but why is everyone silent when our own state is burning from last 4 days.@paragenetics @ABPNews pic.twitter.com/WGfnL7lWip
— Ritika Sanwal (Pahadan) 🗻 #Uttarakhandi (@infiniteflames2) May 26, 2020
Unbearable heat , treacherous terrain , one wrong step and you can break your bones , add to this the winds which make it extremely unpredictable !! This was my experience of dealing with this last night ! #wildfires #Rudraprayag pic.twitter.com/kvI47nMD88
— Vaibhav Singh,IFS (@VaibhavSinghIFS) May 24, 2020
The fire broke out in Uttarakhand forest. 46 wildfire incidents in 2020. More than half of birds species & wildlife are in danger. Our Uttarakhand is burning for the last 4 days. 2020 is getting worst. 😟#Uttarakhand #UttarakhandForestFire #wildlife pic.twitter.com/HuZZ7z3zyW
— Suman Bisht (@pahadi_suman) May 26, 2020
#Uttarakhand is burning since days but why isn’t anyone talking about our own #devabhoomi burning? We prayed for #Australia and #Amazon, how can we be so ignorant about of own devabhoomi?#UttarakhandForestFire @HMOIndia @BJP4UK @UTDBofficial @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/3YkFd77p3R
— Devendra Kumar Sharma (@Devendra1912) May 26, 2020
*Uttarakhand is Burning, 46 Wildfire Incidents in 2020, Around 51.34 Hectares, 71.05 Repository of Herbs And Wildlife Diversity Are Affected* pic.twitter.com/VZDTwIDJtG
— Rishabh Singh Rana (@RishabhRana161) May 26, 2020
This news comes after the 5-day-long Cyclone Amphan that took 86 lives in Kolkata and wreaked havoc damaging property worth Rs 1 lakh crore in the state.
The frequency of Earthquakes has gotten higher too especially in Delhi. Yesterday, two earthquakes with a magnitude of 5.5 and 2.6 hit Manipur back to back with the tremors being felt in Assam and other Northeast regions too.
If you’ve been following the latest news, locust swarms have been spotted in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh leading to a possibility of a locust plague in India. According to reports, locusts attack and destroy crops and have a history of being a contributory cause of famines.
Pray for #uttarakhand 🙏
2020 is the worst and challenging year😓#uttarakhandfire pic.twitter.com/i3j5ZuY8uT— Mustafizur Rahman (@Mustafi67311571) May 26, 2020
Forest #fire breaks out in #Uttarakhand 😢
Causes a huge #loss to #Flora and #Faun😔#UttarakhandForestFire pic.twitter.com/aSkNLhfgDq— Divya Gupta (@sweetdivya23) May 26, 2020
In a developing country like India that’s been going through a pandemic for more than two months now, such natural calamities are causing a great deal of worry and losses to its people. Netizens are convinced that 2020 is the worst year for India. We hope things get better soon and we emerge stronger than ever through these tough times.
Featured Image: Twitter