18 Hectares of Land in Gilan Burned in the Last 24 Hours

Following a series of wildfires in 9 counties in Gilan province, a total of 18 hectares of land in this province were burned. The head of the crisis management in Gilan province stated that many of these fires were intentional and aimed at increasing land area by landowners. Mohammad Reza Haqbin emphasized that these individuals will be referred to judicial authorities after identification. Intentional forest fires in Iran have become one of the environmental issues, and with the intensification of this trend, the vegetation cover and forest area in the country are being destroyed. In this regard, the head of the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Department of Lorestan province stated on May 5 of this year that 99% of forest and pasture fires are human-caused, declaring the situation of forests in five counties of this province as 'very critical.' Hossein Mirzaei identified the conversion of forest and pasture lands into agricultural lands as one of the main causes of human-induced fires. Hassan Ahmadi from the Natural Resources Headquarters at the University of Tehran mentioned that in 1953, Iran and Turkey had 18 million hectares of forest, but now the area of forests in Iran has decreased to 12 million hectares while Turkey has increased its forest area to 40 million hectares. The extensive fire in the forests of Paveh occurred just a few days after the extinguishing of the fire in the forests of Marivan. In response to the increase in fires in industrial centers, a member of parliament mentioned the possibility of 'sabotage.' According to Gilan province officials, 'personal enmity' was the reason behind the fire at the drug rehabilitation camp in Langarud. A fire occurred at the Energy Resources Development Organization; the Ministry of Defense reported that a plastic warehouse caught fire. Flames have engulfed the forests of Paveh; the fire rekindled from under the ashes.