Why forest personnel assigned to election duty? Supreme Court asks Centre, state govt on Uttarakhand fires

The Supreme Court chastised the central and Uttarakhand governments on Wednesday, raising serious concerns about a lack of funding and the diversion of guards to election duties as the state struggles to contain hundreds of active wildfires and deal with damage worth lakhs of rupees to more than 1,100 hectares caused by over 1,000 fires reported since November.

The Supreme Court slammed the Union government over the Uttarakhand forest fires, questioning why the state was only allotted Rs 3.15 crore when it had requested Rs 10 crore to address the matter. The Supreme Court also asked the Centre why forest personnel were assigned to election duty while forest fires were being reported.

"Why was only 3.15 crore given to the state when it asked for 10 cores to control forest fires...?" When Uttarakhand experienced forest fires, the Supreme Court questioned why forest workers were assigned to election duty.

"You showed us a rosy picture when things were worse," it continued. The hearing was adjourned for a few hours and will resume at 3 pm today.

Earlier, on May 8, while hearing the case, the Supreme Court stated that cloud seeding or "depending on the rain god" is not the solution to the raging forest fires in Uttarakhand, and that authorities must take preventative measures to address the issue. The Uttarakhand administration informed the Supreme Court of the actions taken to manage the forest fires, noting that 0.1% of the state's wildlife cover was on fire as a result of such incidences.

The state administration informed a panel of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta that there had been 398 forest fires in Uttarakhand since November last year, with five persons died in such situations. Deputy Advocate General of Uttarakhand Jatinder Kumar Sethi informed the court that all of the fires were man-made. He added 388 criminal charges have been filed in connection with the forest fires, 60 of which have been named.