Mid-February is considered as the official commencement of summer wildfires pan India by the Forest Survey of India (FSI).
The data by Uttarakhand forest department indicates that 116 hectares has been affected in this duration. Both Garhwal, which has seven districts, and Kumaon, that has six districts, registered almost equal amounts of forest area 53.9ha and 50.7ha respectively under blaze in this duration. And nearly 12 hectares of (PA) have also come under the grip of fires. In the combined winter and summer wildfires from October 1 to March 15, Uttarakhand saw 97 forest fire incidents in which 155.7ha were gutted as per the data of the forest department. The fires led to losses to the tune of Rs 5.6 lakh to the state. While in the winter months, Kumaon region recorded absolutely zero cases of forest fires. Garhwal logged 20 hectares gutted and an almost equal amount of fires gutting 19.7 ha of PA.
The state has nearly 49.21sqkm of extremely fire-prone forest area, 757.92sqkm forest is very highly fire-prone, 4,070sqkm forest is highly fire-prone, 5,887.7sqkm forest is moderately fire-prone while 13,540sqkm forest is less fire-prone according to FSI. Nearly 15% of the forest has chir pine trees, whose needles are considered extremely combustible.Therefore, areas that had smallest of fires, saw spiked incidents in February, according to the authorities.