India recorded 82,170 forest fire alerts from April 1 to 14, nearly doubling from 43,031 in the same period in 2020. Forest fires, wildfires and their alerts in the country have gone up sharply in recent times, posing a serious threat to our environment, wildlife and biodiversity
Firefighters and forest officials struggled to control fires in the Similipal Biosphere Reserve, about 200 km away from Bhubaneswar, Odisha, earlier this year
Image: STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images
(This story appears in the 04 June, 2021 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)