Shimla: Devastating forest fires have become a normal phenomenon during summers due to the changing climate, thanks to the failure of the government to implement the measures recommended by the Khosla Committee to prevent blazes which are no longer confined to pine forests and even engulfing oak and deodar forests. This season alone over 1,600 fire incidents involving about 19,000 hectares of forest area have been reported so far and with the monsoon already delayed, fires will continue to play havoc for another week at least. The plea of the Forest Department that hot and dry weather was responsible for the spurt in fires is untenable as it is a common feature nowadays due to declining snow in winters and rather dry summers. In fact, come summer and the 4,335-sq-km of fire-prone forests in the state are virtually transformed into a huge tinderbox. Until two decades ago, fires were mostly confined to pine forests up to an altitude of 1,600 metres, but now even oak and deodar forests at elevations of 2,500 metres are also experiencing fires, particularly in Shimla district. The Government of India took notice of the problem in 1995, when the highest number of fire incidents were reported from Himachal, Uttarakhand (then a part of Uttar Pradesh) and Jammu and Kashmir, and set up a committee headed by RP Khosla to go into its reasons and suggest short and long-term measures. The Forest Department took some follow-up action on its report and the Centre also provided about Rs 15 crore to the three states. But thereafter the long-term preventive measures were forgotten. The Section 35 (1) of the Indian Forest Act lays down that no fire will be kindled in any private land up to a distance of 100 metres from a forest, but the government has leased out forests to private companies for eco-tourism projects in its violation. Not surprisingly, one such project in Solan district was engulfed by a fire early this month. Comprehensive fire action plans for sensitive forest areas, right from the beat level upwards, are not being made and implemented. As a result fires break out with unfailing regularity and the department helplessly waits for rain to end the annual fiery ordeal. This year out of the total 2,301 km of fire lines, only 1,004 km were cleared and control burning was carried out only over 2,952 hectares. The department claims that forests up to 10 metres along 6,100 km of road length were also cleared of inflammable pine needles to help reduce fire risk. The recommendation to enforce the provision under which rights of villagers could be curtailed or even forfeited if they failed to assist the Forest Department in extinguishing forest fires had not been implemented. The efforts to involve villagers in the management of forests had also not yielded the desired results. The only way out is to carry out controlled burning over larger areas and create more fire lines and clear these before the fire season. Of late, controlled burning and clearing of fire lines have been severely restricted due to paucity of funds.