Wildfire destroys forest land in Khanpur range

HARIPUR: The wildfire has destroyed a large area of forestland of Koh-e-Siribang in Chajiyan village council, the local people said on Thursday.

“The burnt area has hundreds of mature pine trees and saplings besides scrub,” said Muhammad Matloob. former naib nazim of Chajiyan village council and one of the eyewitnesses.

He said that the fire erupted on Wednesday at around 4 pm in the forest area of Koh-e-Siribang, a mountain range overlooking the famous Chajian waterfall, and was put out by the villagers at 3am on Thursday.

He said that the fire, that had also engulfed the neighboring reserved forest, reduced a number of mature pine trees to ashes. He said that the fire destroyed the forestland spread over an area of about 50 kenals when the area people managed to put out the fire using conventional methods.

When approached for comments, Syed Toqir Shah, the Range Officer Khanpur, confirmed that the fire incident was result of setting on fire the dried grass by the villagers.