March 18, Kathmandu. In the last few days, most of the forests in the country have been burning uncontrollably. Many human settlements are at risk as fires pollute the atmosphere. But there is neither coordination nor budget from the union to the local government to control it.


The fire is causing increasing biological and environmental damage to wildlife, plants, flora, herbs and firewood. However, no effective initiative has been taken by the government to control the fire.

The Department of Forest and Land Conservation under the Ministry of Forest and Environment says that since the authority to manage the national forest has gone to the state government,

Man Bahadur Khadka, director general of the forest department, said that the federal government did not have a large budget to control the fire as the rights went to the state government.

Director General of the Forest Department Man Bahadur Khadka says that the governments and bodies below the Union are more responsible for controlling the fire. We have made a policy, accordingly work should be done below.

Home Ministry spokesperson and joint secretary Chakra Bahadur Budha said that the local administration has been instructed to control the fire.

"The disaster management authority is now more responsible than the ministry," he said.

However, NEA has recently provided an expert on what can be done to prevent and control the fire.

Deputy Secretary Sundar Sharma, who is in charge of GIS system, has been taken to NEA as an expert. NEA has just started a study on the fire.

Due to lack of coordination between the federal, state and local levels, confusion over rights and jurisdiction, no effort has been made to prevent and control the fire.

The problem persists because neither side has emphasized on the use of scientific methods and technology and no one has taken the initiative to make the locals responsible for fire prevention and control.

The federal government, state government, local level, parks, reserves, protected areas, local police administration, army, forest groups are indifferent to the fire control saying that there is lack of budget.

The concerned parties have complained that the budget for fire control is only a 'ritualistic allocation'.

According to the annual development program of the Ministry of Forest and Environment, the ministry aims to spend this amount from the federal, state and local levels for fire control. The ministry does not have up-to-date data on how much was spent on fire control.

Nepal has an area of ​​forest (including butyan) in an area of ​​about 5.828 million hectares. Accordingly, the budget for fire control is only Rs 9.84 per hectare per year. One hectare is 10,000 square meters of land.

This year, only Rs 6 million has been allocated for the study of carbon emissions from forest fires. There is a budget of Rs. 500,000 for mapping fire risk in the provinces. A budget of Rs. 22 million has been earmarked for forest fire management across the country. This is the budget set by the federal government to control the fire.

Apart from this, Rs. 17.9 million has been allocated for forest fire control and management programs at the state level. At the state level, Rs. 13.5 million has been allocated for the purchase and distribution of fire-related materials, equipment and supplies.

Since this amount will be distributed in every state, the officials of the forest department themselves admit that it is like a seed. Khadka, director general of the forest department, said the federal government would increase the budget for fire control next year based on this year's experience.

As per the Program Implementation Procedure 2077 of the Ministry of Forest and Environment, special tools and materials to be used in forest fire control, uniforms worn by fire control team, high pressure pump, water tank, tractor or pickup trolley will be procured this year. The government expects such materials to help control forest fires.

Khadka is of the view that all stakeholders should now plan for prevention and response to control the spread of fires across the country in winter.

Decade strategy for decades

The forest fire control strategy formulated a decade ago is still in limbo. No action plan has been formulated yet for the implementation of the strategy formulated in 2067 BS.

Former Forest Secretary Yuvraj Bhusal says that there is confusion as to which level of government bodies will do what for the prevention and control of fires.

In the strategy, it is mentioned that by declaring a fire crisis period within a certain period of time when there will be more fire outbreaks, an arrangement will be made to issue orders to all the organs of the state to be ready against the fire and take control.

The strategy includes improving the institutional structure of the Ministry of Forest and Land Conservation and its subordinate bodies, developing fire management structures or mechanisms in coordination with fire disaster management and control agencies other than forest areas, and forming fire management volunteer subgroups in community-based forest management groups. However, no institutional structure has been formed for that so far.

Khadka admits that the government has not moved forward as per the strategy so far.

According to the records of the Forest Department, forest fires have broken out in 186 places in the last 24 hours. Even now, the fire has not been extinguished in 121 places. Last week, more than 580 places caught fire on the same day. The number of fires this year is higher than the total number of fires in the last four years.

According to Sundar Sharma, a fire management expert at the Disaster Management Authority, fires occur naturally and in some cases are used to assist in activities such as smuggling, encroachment and poaching of forest products.

Preventive and some control measures taken by various agencies have not been sufficient for fire management.

Expert Sharma said, "Fires can be prevented only if the government works with concrete action plans and programs."

According to him, there is also a practice of burning for the expansion of ditches, expansion of marginal agricultural lands and expansion of steppe areas.