Forest fires — spurred by hot and dry weather — have destroyed large areas of forest in Siberia. But the Russian Government and Russia's Greenpeace are disputing the scale of destruction.
Greenpeace ecologists claim fires have destroyed 100,000 square kilometres of forests across Russia since the start of the northern summer, with 50,000 square kilometres ravaged in central Siberia alone.In contrast, the Kremlin's Emergencies Ministry says the fires have so far covered an area of only 6530 square kilometres.
However, Greenpeace maintains that its figures are far more accurate as they are based on satellite imagery.
Thick smoke has enveloped Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Omsk and other major cities in Siberia, closing down local airports for days. Plumes of smoke rising high into the atmosphere have been carried by winds as far across the Pacific as British Columbia in Canada.
More than 6000 fire-fighters; a dozen aircraft; and hundreds of volunteers are fighting the fires in Siberia, but have so far failed to contain the fires.
“The forest fires are so vast that rains alone can stop them,” said Alexei Yaroshenko, who heads the forest section in Greenpeace Russia. “This year may beat all previous records for the scale of wildfires.”
While authorities blame the fires on the hottest and driest summer in Siberia in more than 40 years, ecologists fault a reform of the forestry service six years ago, when the government drastically downsized the forestry manpower and cut financing.
According to Mr Yaroshenko, the forests destroyed by wildfires every year in Russia are so big that cannot be replanted.
“The fires have altered the taiga ecosystem in some areas of Siberia and the Far East, transforming it into ‘green deserts’ overgrown with grass, which provokes more fires when it gets dry,” the ecologist said.
Source: The Hindu, India