April 17, 2013
This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, are in red. Shot taken April 13, 2013.
Fires have continued to rage in forests in the plain and hilly regions across Nepal in the past couple of days.
According to the concerned District Forest Offices, many medicinal herbs have destroyed in the infernos while forests spread over 1,000 hectares have been affected, and wildlife displaced.
A fire at the Chitwan National Park in Chitwan district in central Nepal last month has yet to be doused. And forests in Birendranagar, Shaktikhor and Bhandara, among other areas in the same district, have been destroyed, the District Forest Office said.
Chief Warden of Parsa Wildlife Reserve Nilambar Mishra in Parsa district, also in central Nepal, said a fire has continued to destroy forest resources in the reserve for a month, engulfing about 50 per cent of the reserve.
Officials at the Nawalparasi District Forest Office, in Nepal's west, said they are finding it hard to douse fires fuelled by the wind, which have been devouring significant areas of various community and national forests in the past few days. District Forest Officer Suresh Gupta said a lack of human resource, funds and firefighting equipment have worsened the situation.
Blazes have also been sweeping through the forests in the Bara district, central Nepal, for the past 10 days. District Forest Office chief Man Bahadur Khadka said precious medicinal herbs and timber have been burnt. Staffers at the Banke National Park, in the country's mid-west, said they are struggling to put out a fire burning the conservation area for want of means. The District Forest Officer of Dang, another mid-western district, has said jungles covering 2,390 hectares have been degraded in infernos over the past week.
In Salyan district, also in the mid-west, community forests at Jumkhola and Kalche Baluwa have been burnt down as well. And in Gulmi in western Nepal, half a dozen community forests are also encountering fires.
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