Over 14,430 acres damaged due to wildfires in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

ISLAMABAD: An area of 14,430 acres was damaged after more than 200 wildfires continue to rage in various districts of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province during the past two weeks, according to a report.

The area includes forests and pastures, Dawn reported on Sunday.

Of the 210 wildfire incidents, around 55 blazes have been started intentionally by local people and 12 ascribed to dry weather conditions while the cause of another 143 blazes is unknown, according to a report compiled by the provincial forestry, environment and wildlife department.

These figures are based on daily situation reports generated by the department between May 23 and June 9.

Latifur Rehman, a spokesperson for the department said that rumours had been circulating in the affected areas that the government would pay compensation for any damage to forests due to wildfires.

Pakistan had a harsh and lengthy heatwave, the longest one in the country’s history.

Besides this, Pakistan continues to struggle with the electricity and gas outages, the protestors at multiple places in the country demonstrated against the federal government demanding an immediate supply of electricity and natural gas.

The country is also witnessing nationwide protests on the water shortage, as the water crisis has broken a 22-year record in Pakistan as the provinces face a 50 per cent shortage of water and there is 97 per cent water scarcity in reservoirs, as per the details released by the Indus River System Authority (IRSA).

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