Fire burning, anyone really care?

Perhaps there is an abundance of general belief among everyone that there is an overabundance of natural resources like the forest coverage. This can be reflected in the largely ignorant manner in which people treat the thousands of acres of forest coverage being lost to natural and man-made hazards.

A recent mishap, that of a forest fire burning along the regions of Taksha (Wangduephodrang) and fast spreading toward Tsirang was however a topic of heated discussion, because it involved risks to the lives of people travelling on the highways cutting across these regions.

Giant tree trunks were seen to be blocking roads as they most probably fell down on roads below due to burning fires. Rolling boulders and falling stones became cause for concerns in locations elsewhere due to which vehicles were cautioned against travelling on the respective highways.

Of course, human lives are precious, but an equally sound argument can be made for the burning forests not just specific to the ones being destroyed by the forest fire aforementioned.

In fact, it should now be clear and worrying observation among everyone that the inglorious forest fires are becoming an infamous seasonal event, seemingly wanting to stay.

And with the fire mishaps consistently marked every year (not that they are a need of any hour) with huge forest covers burnt to nothingness, it does seem to have caught on as an annual event. In all this the loss of resources is unavoidably many… and costly. The recent fire has damaged 300 to 400 acres of chirpine forest.

The country is rich in its forest cover, this cannot be denied, but resources are not inexhaustible or everlasting. They are constantly on the decline owing to many factors such as logging, constructions etc. A large portion of the population in the country still is heavily reliant on these resources and they need to be preserved for generations now and after.

It can safely be said that authorities really need to up the ante in nipping this trend in the bud.

It is also not to say that no efforts are being made. It is very much visible that no efforts are being spared by concerned offices and personnel to tackle this issue. This is quite hugely and graciously in practice through different modes of educating masses on the ills of forest fires, training people in relevant fields on fire fighting.

Maybe everyone can start playing a role in this to drive home the sense in this matter. And one can say what better place than home to start with or schools where minds are caught young and fresh to soak in all the learning.

Taking the often cited reasons in forest fires, which is usually a child playing with matches, a fire that was not put off properly after burning waste; it seems that carelessness can be truly be avoided at the roots.

Published as Editorial for Business Bhutan on March 28, 2015