Fiery wildfires have been spreading rapidly across Dadeldhura district with the ongoing dry season. As reported by Republica, Dadeldhura District Forest Office (DFO) has informed that wildfires have already damaged more than 200 government and non-government forest areas of the district.

It further reports most of the affected forest areas are located at Chure and Mahabharat ranges. Patches of smoldering forest areas are easily visible in both the geographical ranges from far distance.

DFO chief Dr Binod Devkota shared that the fire has already engulfed many forest areas and some are on the verge of destruction and that they are trying their best to bring the situation under control at many places.

According to Devkota, the inner Madhes areas have been largely affected by the spreading wildfire. “To this day, wildfires have destroyed more than 100 forests at Alital, Shirsha and Jogbuda areas, and the situation can get worse in the coming days,” said Devkota.

More than three dozens forests of Mahabharat range in Daldeldhura district have been engulfed by wildfires. It has been found that most fire incidents are caused by human errors. Fire left by campers and still-burning cigarette butts are the leading cause of forest fires.

Devkota highlighted that there is a lack of enough manpower to control the blaze which he said is a difficult job and requires multiple hands.

To walk close to fire-hit areas is humanly impossible as the smoke makes it difficult to breathe.

“Some fires are easy to put off but some take many days. Some of our men are still trying to extinguish such raging fires, most of which have occurred at community forests,” said member of Community Forest Consumer Federation, Ganesh Bohora.

According to a ranger at Jogbuda Forest Area Office, wildfires are spreading mostly at Trishuli, Madhusundari, Shivasundari, Shatrupa, Kalika, and Jhilmila.