Forest fire About 700 people in Yebilaptsa, Zhemgang are battling a forest fire, which has been raging for the last two days, and has burnt about ten acres of chirpine forest under the Royal Manas national park.

Students from Yebilaptsa schools, and police and volunteers from nearby areas, have been battling the flames, since it was first reported around 1am on May 20. Trong gup reported the fire to the fire division, the park’s assistant forester Sangay Choda said.

The fire started below the Panbang-Gomphu road, a few kilometres away from Yebilaptsa hospital.

Waste Management: With no “proper place” designated for the community to dump solid waste, some frustrated residents of Khasadrapchu dug a garbage pit by the riverside six years ago.

Located below the road that leads to the Gidakom hospital, the landfill is not fenced nor missed by passersby or stray dogs. One can see that the wind has blown some into the river, while papers and plastics cling on to the bare branches.

Autsho, Lhuentse: A forest fire that started from the banks of Kurichu at Autsho in Lhuentse has razed, over the weekend, more than 700 acres of pine forest, which is abundantly covered with lemon grass.

According to eyewitnesses, the fire started when a rolling boulder at Autsho-Ladrong farm road construction site hit a tree, which caused several other stones to roll off. The sparks that flew when the stones rubbed against each other started the fire.

Carbon Stored Value: With a forest cover of 72 percent, work is underway in the country, to have in place a mechanism that would help measure the financial value of carbon stored in the forests of Bhutan.

Having a value of the carbon stored in the forest under the UN-Reducing Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) would mean financial incentives for countries like Bhutan, who protect and conserve their forests from deforestation and degradation.

A bird flu outbreak is suspected in Yangbari village in Gongdue, Mongar after 30-40 chicks were reported dead from nine houses last month.

The deaths were reported to the department of livestock on March 27 and the samples are yet to be confirmed positive by the national center for animal health in Serbithang, Thimphu.

Yangbari is about two days official walk from Nanglam and is not connected with electricity or road. Yangbari shares its border with four dzongkhags of Zhemgang, Samdrupjongkhar, Pemagatshel and Mongar.

While the forest fire that had been burning in the two gewogs of Mongar for the last two days spread to a third gewog, Tongla in Kengkhar gewog yesterday, some 60 people were battling another forest fire in Punakha the same time.

As of last evening, more than 60 people led by the Punakha dzongda were battling the fire that had started around 2pm from Toebirongchhu when a farmer was burning debris. The fire had reached near Wolapokto lhakhang, about 10 minutes walk from the nearest road.

A forest fire that had started at dawn on March 31 near Resa in Saling gewog in Mongar was still raging as of last evening. Resa is a village at the south of Saling.

Mongar dzongkhag’s forest officer Norbu Wangdi said the fire could have started from sparks when falling boulders from a high rocky cliff rub against each other. He said such forest fires happen almost every year.

“People are not able to go and control the fire because the area is very rocky but we have sent some forest officials today,” he said.

News editors from 18 Asian countries deliberated media’s role in fighting climate change in a two-day conference “Himalayan system in a changing climate future and media’s role” which ended yesterday in Kathmandu, Nepal.
The receding Himalayan glaciers, rising temperatures, glacial lake outburst flood, and rapid urbanisations were some of the critical issues the 21 editors discussed at length.

The Cabinet yesterday added six birds to the list of protected wild animals in Bhutan under the Forest and Nature Conservation Act.

This, forestry officials said, was the first change since the Act’s introduction in 1995, taking the total number of protected wild animals to 30 different species.

The bird species added to the list include White-belled heron, Chesnut-brested hill Patridge, White-rumped vulture, beautiful Nuthatch, Blyth’s Tragopan and Satyr Tragopan.

The study, worth Nu 2M, World Wildlife Fund officials said would focus on the snow leopard population and their places of existence to help prioritise the best areas for conservation.

WWF conservation director Vijay Moktan said there were no studies done at the park nor were there any local expert who could study snow leopards.

“So we invited wildlife experts from outside,” he said, claiming the study was first of its kind at the park. “These experts trained the local park officials.”