As on August 22, as many as 3,358 forest fires have been detected by satellite monitoring systems.
It has been a hell of time for Brazil over the past week. With forest fires raging in the Brazilian Amazon, fears of total destruction of the world’s largest rainforest are turning out to be true. The Brazilian Amazon region, last week, witnessed forest fires numbering close to a 15-year high, which are feared to be leading to a major catastrophe for forest environments and life within the planet’s largest rainforest.
As on August 22, as many as 3,358 forest fires have been detected by satellite monitoring systems. This actually is the highest in terms of numbers for any 24-hour period since September 2007, it has been reported.
Further still, on a day what experts term the ‘Day of Fire’, that is on August 10, 2019, the number of forest fires that lashed through Brazil’s Amazon was nearly triple. This had been triggered by a coordinated plan by farmers in the region to burn huge amounts of felled rainforest in the northern state of Para, the report added.
Forest fires spark public outcry
The Day of Fire blaze had been huge, and it had made thick grey smoke travel all the way to Sao Paulo, which lies around 2,500 km away. This phenomenon had then sparked a global outcry, after pictures of the fires over the most vital resources had gone viral.
Coming to last week, the fires evoke almost similar concern. Though it is not known whether the August 22, 2022 fires were triggered by man. However, they seem to have shown traits of accelerating deforestation and burning. Most of the time, fires across the Amazon rainforests are found to be caused by illegal farmers, ranchers and others who clear land and torch the trees for their own benefit.
Illegal farmers, ranchers trigger coordinated fire
Brazili’s Amazon region are under siege by these criminals. Fires have been advancing farther and farther north, causing much concern. As the dry weather sets in by around the month of August, the so called fire season too begins, destroying forest lands and triggering much worry to the environment.
With as many as 5,373 fires detected during the last month, which is a hike of 8 percent from July last year, the worries seem to be unending for the Brazilian rainforest. Besides, this month has seen 24,124 fires. Where the situation is leading to is a major cause for concern.