Uttarakhand Forest fires issue considered by Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has directed the Uttarakhand High Court to revisit the issue of forest fires in the state and issue necessary directions. Noting that the issue requires constant monitoring by the high court which is better equipped to do so, a CJI Surya Kant led bench has urged the high court to monitor the implementation of the measures as well.

While disposing of an SLP filed against the High Court's 2016 decision wherein it had issued a bunch of directions in suo motu proceedings initiated pursuant to some news items which highlighed 922 incidents of forest fires reported during the year 2015-16 affecting 879 hectares of land, a CJI Surya Kant led bench said that the issue should be reviewed by high court.

"A series of directions were issued by the high court more than a decade back. The implementation of these directions could not see the light of day as they were stayed by this court. Substantial directions have been complied with. The incidents of forest fires are continuing every year. Since there are allegation of diversion of funds and lack of commitment on the part of the authorities, the directions given by the high court out to be revisited by the high court especially when a decade has passed.," the court noted today.

Senior Advocate Rajiv Datta also appeared before the bench in a application asking the state of Uttarakhand to disclose why the forest fires continue to occur in 2024-26 despite these directions.

"One fire went on for a month..they have no manpower to douse a fire..when it occurs, how it occurs, yes it is an act of god..but there are reports which say it is beacuse of the large number of people travelling to these places," Datta told the bench.

In response, counsel for Uttarakhand government said, "I will give some numbers..it is coming down..we are now taking steps to stop them from occuring..it happens when there is excessive heat, there are these pine needles which fall down and catch fire..we have around 12000 staff which are regularly working as fire watchers..we have 283 sanctioned strength of forest rangers.."

When the petitioner argued that, fires happened even after the state's preparedness, CJI Kant said, "Forest fires are natural incidents..it is triggered by heat..sometimes it happens because of forest mafias also.."

"Your concerns are compelling..you have been very proactive..but certain directions of the high court passed in 2016..it has been a decade and these have to be reviewed," Justice Bagchi further advised the petitioner.

In its 2016 order the high court had discussed in detail the environmental jurisprudence and poor maintenance of well know forest reserves in the area, the chapters on UN conference on the human environment as well as various decisions of this court and finally issued various directions. These directions include formation of National Forest Policy by Union of India, declaring ten kilometres of ecosystem zone around Jim Corbett, not to declare any animal as man-eater and many more.

Case Title: THE STATE OF UTTARAKHAND FOREST AND ENVIRONMENT GOVERNMENT OF UTTARAKHAND PRINCIPAL SECRETARY Vs IN THE MATTER OF THE PROTECTION OF FOREST ENVIRONMENT ECOLOGY WILDLIFE ETC. FROM THE FOREST FIRE

Bench: CJI Kant, Justice Bagchi and Justice Mohana

Hearing Date: July 23, 2026

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