Forest fires vs shrubs: Archaic tools, no training exacerbate Uttarakhand crisis

For the past two months, as the temperature has soared, the mountains in Uttarakhand have been on fire, spirals of smoke visible in the day.

He is dangerously close to the flames. His face is drawn and tired, his eyes are squinting in the heat, his legs are trembling under the strain of fighting a losing battle on a steep slope. The enemy that faces his team of five bedraggled men is fierce and unrelenting — an uncontrolled forest fire that is spreading quickly in the Singtur range of Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district. An enemy that has singed the mountains of Uttarakhand for the past two months, and claimed the lives of men like him.

A firefighter uses a jhapa and a sickle in Uttarakhand. (HT photo)