Uttarakhand’s Valley of Flowers is on fire. Hopes are pinned on the Air Force

Range Officer Chetna Kandpal said, “The fire has been raging for five days, and the Forest Department staff have not been able to reach the spot to initiate dousing. The area is inaccessible on foot due to its altitude and elevation. Our personnel attempted to climb the mountain, but the risk of falling boulders and shooting stones forced them to call it off. The DM has written to the secretariat for assistance from agencies, including the IAF.”

Though the trigger for the fire remains unknown, the reason it is sustaining has been attributed to low rainfall, the dry nature of deciduous trees and accumulated litter of leaves, and low humidity. “We have recorded humidity at 20-25%. This is compounded by the nature of the trees. As these mountains have deciduous trees, they are dry and shed leaves earlier. The heavy leaf litter has become fuel for the fire. The mountains regularly receive snowfall, but this year, there has not been enough precipitation to control the fire,” Kandpal said.

The ranger also said an aerial survey would be conducted on Wednesday to ascertain the size of the burnt area and formulate ways to tackle the fire. “We had sought helicopters to douse the fire, but a preliminary survey will be conducted first, after which methods will be devised,” she said.

The fire was reported in the mountains in the Nanda Devi National Park at an altitude of 3,500-4,200 metres, between the Lakshman Ganga and Alaknanda rivers.

The nearest human settlement is across the river, which has not been affected.

On Tuesday, the Range team carried out forest fire prevention and patrolling operations in the hilly areas between the Alaknanda and Lakshman Ganga rivers. Kandpal said that a team conducted reconnaissance of the area and returned to Pulna.

“The team reported that in some inaccessible locations in the hills between the Alaknanda and Lakshman Ganga rivers, forest fire and smoke was visible from old stumps. However, due to difficult geographical conditions, it was not possible to reach those locations directly,” she said. A makeshift bridge was constructed to cross the river, but the route was found to have been blocked due to steep rock faces, because of which the team could not reach the forest fire-affected site.

Sushant Patnaik, who is in charge of Forest Fire and Disaster Management, said the fire was detected on the evening of January 9 through an FSI alert. “However, the fire is in an accessible spot with no approach road or path to reach. The forest personnel and State Disaster Response Force have been deployed, but they could not reach the area. We had decided to conduct a survey today, but could not use helicopter services due to inclement weather. We will carry out a recce on Wednesday and seek assistance from the Centre accordingly,” he said. The cause of the fire and the extent are being worked out.

Forest fires are reported in Uttarakhand every year, and as per the FSI’s State of Forest Report 2023, released in December 2024, the state reported a burnt area of 1,808 sq km. The report also said that among states, the most number of forest fire detections by the SNPP-VIIRS satellite, as many as 21,033, was observed in Uttarakhand. The state has a geographical area of 53,483 sq km, of which 2,021 sq km is at very high fire risk of fire, 7,185 sq km is in the high risk category, and 9,293 sq km is in the moderate risk category.
In June 2024, during the firefighting operations in Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary in Almora, six forest personnel of the department died. Winter fire, from November to February, is largely due to crop residue burning and controlled clearance of fire lines.

On Tuesday, the state recorded 33 total fire alerts, including those raging from previous days.