6/7/2017 Scroll Biodiversity damage: Once dense forests in Kumaon now resemble cremation grounds https://scroll.in/article/print/807907 1/9 AFP FOREST REPORT Biodiversity damage: Once dense forests in Kumaon now resemble cremation grounds An ecologist working in areas ravaged by the Uttarakhand fires reports unprecedented damage to oak forests and proposes solutions. by Rajkamal Goswami Published May 11, 2016 · 09:15 am Uttarakhand seems to be moving from one natural tragedy to the next – the devastating floods of 2013, to the current forest fires. Though rainfall in the first week of May largely doused the fires except in a few areas, official statistics say that the fires destroyed 1,900 hectares of forests. Different forest-types respond to, and recover from, conflagrations in different fashions. The mid- elevation belt of the central Himalayas was among the areas worst hit by these fires. Two broad types of forest occur in this belt – those dominated by oak, or chir pine. This is where I have been working and from where I draw most of my observations on the current fires. So far, most of the news, opinion and conspiracy theories have focused on fires in chir forests. Much of the debate has been on the fire’s origins, the long-term changes in landuse patterns, loss of old oak