Uttarakhand Forest Fires: CM Rawat says misleading propaganda spread on social media sharing old pictures
Amidst the Corona crisis, reports of a huge fire in the forests of Uttarakhand are becoming very viral on social media. Many people have shared photo’s on their Twitter and Facebook account.
It is also being claimed that two people have died and many animals have died due to this fire. People are posting pictures on social media claiming that the forests of Uttarakhand have been burning in the fire for the last four days, but no one is going to take care of it. But the government has refuted these claims.
Forest Minister Harak Singh himself also entered the field. He made it clear that in the name of Uttarakhand on social media, photo-videos of forest fire are going viral, some of them are old and some are from abroad.
चीन और चिली के जंगलों मे लगी आग एवं वर्ष २०१६ और २०१९ की वनाग्नि की पुरानी तस्वीरों के माध्यम से उत्तराखंड के खिलाफ एक भ्रामक और सत्य से परे दुष्प्रचार चल रहा है; कृपया ऐसी अफवाहों पर ध्यान न दें और ऐसी भ्रामक खबरों से सावधान रहें| https://t.co/SY5eigG4QC
— Trivendra Singh Rawat (@tsrawatbjp) May 27, 2020
PIB and CM tweeted
PIB (Press Information Bureau) Uttarakhand has given this information via twitter. CM Trivendra Singh Rawat has also shared it on his Twitter account. It reads that ‘A misleading propaganda, using old pics of forest fires of 2016 & 2019 & that of forest fires in Chilean & Chinese forests, is raging on SM. I req everyone to not believe such motivated campaign. Fire incidents reported until yesterday is way less than PY. ‘ The CM also said that ‘Forest fire incidents in hills is common during summer season. Fortunately until 26 May,only 81.16Ha of area is under fire & this is 5% of what it was during same period LY.’
He said that Uttarakhand is Devbhoomi. People are praying for this, but it is wrong to pray under fake campaign. We should pray for the good of every Indian. The forest department of Uttarakhand has also reported the news of the fire as fake.
Forest Minister Harak Singh alleged that the department’s image was being tarnished by spreading fake news. After this, forest chief Jayaraj issued an order appointing Chief Forest Conservator Parag Madhukar Dhakate as social media incharge, he was asked to strongly refute the information beyond the facts. At the same time, the forest officials were also ordered to give accurate and correct information to the media in-charge. Along with this, he got active on social media against Fake News, he also uploaded a video giving the correct information.
