Speaking at a two-day training on management of forest fires organized by the District Forestry Office, Bhaktapur here on Monday, Coordinator of the South Asian Wildfire Management Network, Sundar Prasad Sharma, disclosed that wildfires have occurred at 123 places in the country on Sunday alone. [break]
He said the wildfires have broken out at Chitwan, Shuklaphanta, Parsa National Park, Taplejung, Terhathum, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi, Banke and Bardiya among other places on Sunday.
It was also disclosed at the training that more than 3,000 hectares of forest has been destroyed since January to March in which one person died, 74 houses were gutted, a large number of wildlife and birds were displaced and valuable forest resources were destroyed.
Sharma said forest fires broke out at 2,135 places from March 26, 2008 to 10 July, 2009 and that wildfires occurred at 420 different places on a single day.
Forest fire caused the death of 43 people, injuries to 12 people, burnt 53 houses and caused damage of property worth approximately Rs. 140 million last year.
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