HARIPUR, June 2: Wildfire has destroyed a vast area of forest and is feared to have killed scores of birds and animals in the hilly range of Koh-i-Gandgar in the Ghazi tehsil near the Tarbela Dam. The fire broke out on Saturday night in the forest area of the Kotehra Union Council in the Tarchiti village and spread up to the hilly range of the Baghdara village due to winds, destroying different species of trees at an area of about 300 kanals, eyewitnesses and forest officials said.

Kotehra Union Council Nazim Malik Afzal told this correspondent that fire incidents were a common phenomenon in the forest range of Koh-i-Gandgar and every year trees and wildlife were destroyed due to negligence of the department concerned.

He said the fire had erupted near the Tarchiti village and engulfed an area of about one kilometre under forest cover, which consisted of kale, pine, phulahi, kao and other species of scrub forest.

He alleged that local miscreants had set the forest on fire in connivance of officials of the forest department, saying the forest officials sold half burnt and dried trees at throw-away prices to local firewood stall owners.

He said that sine the forest department had no arrangements to put out fire, every year a number of costly trees were burnt and wildlife killed in large numbers. He said the forestland of his area had partridge of different species, fox, jackals, dears and other birds and animals, which were either killed in scores due to wildfire or made to migrate to other areas.

Answering a question, Mr Afzal did not agree that the forest department carried out plantation in the affected areas, for which it received millions of rupees every year.

Mr Rasheed, the area forester, confirmed that the fire had destroyed a vast area of forest.