In a video posted on social media, forest department conservator Dr Parag Madhukar has said that the photographs of Uttarakhand forest fires being shared on social media are old and “no serious forest fires have been reported from the state”.

“The photographs that doing the rounds on social media are from Chile and other places,” Madhukar said. “Uttarakhand forest department is monitoring the situation via satellites and the firefighters are controlling the isolated incidents of forest fires that have been reported. Currently, there are no serious incidents.”