Overview
- Forest Department officials report large fires in several remote pockets of the Rajouri Forest Division, including Khadian, Androla, Chakkli, Miahadi and the Bathuni block, with operations ongoing across multiple sites.
- The full available forest workforce, the Forest Protection Force, social forestry teams and local volunteers have been mobilised, but steep, inaccessible terrain is forcing largely manual firefighting and blocking vehicle deployment.
- Authorities say these are surface fires rather than crown fires, which limits canopy spread but still causes heavy damage to understorey biomass, birds, reptiles and other wildlife; no human casualties have been reported so far.
- Officials attribute the recent spike in incidents to an ongoing heatwave and prolonged dry spell that have produced an unusually high number of fires in the district over recent weeks, and they have held coordination meetings to speed mobilisation and improve communications.
- Fires in the area have triggered secondary risks, including reported explosions of old landmines along the Line of Control, and officials have appealed for public cooperation and caution while investigations into ignition causes continue.