PESHAWAR: Elders belonging to different localities of Upper Dir have urged the provincial government to bring month-long forest fire under control, warning that the blaze is rapidly spreading to new areas and causing irreparable losses.

Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday alongside local residents, Haji Sultan Yousaf, president of the Dir Welfare Organisation, said forests in the Brikot area of the Sharingal Forest Division had been burning for weeks while the forest department and the elected representatives remained infidderent.

He said multiple compartments including Hetkon Banda (compartment 269), Bashamba Banda (compartment 270) and Kangal (compartments 271, 272 and 273) in the Patrak Range were engulfed by flames.

Local villagers from Brikot had been trying to extinguish the fire for a month but were unable to contain it due to its intensity and difficult terrain.

Yousaf said that valuable deodar forests were being reduced to ashes, resulting in losses of billions of rupees to the country.

Residents noted that it took four hours to reach the site on Kumrat Road, with no access routes, no water and no basic firefighting facilities available in the area. They added that despite the gravity of the situation, neither the provincial government nor the forest department had taken any concrete action.

The speakers questioned why the local MNA and MPA did not raise the issue in the provincial assembly. They warned that the fire had begun spreading to neighbouring areas and called for judicial inquiry into how the blaze started, especially given the presence of forest staff in the region.

The residents appealed to Pakistan army to assist in extinguishing the fire, as only helicopter-based operations could effectively control it due to the difficult terrain and lack of resources.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2025