People used to spend their leisure time at the site during spring, relaxing under the shade of Kasnazan forest’s now-destroyed trees.
“The source of the fire was four to five tourists who had come for a picnic and grilled fish. The fire they started got out of their control leading to the burning of the forest,” Mufawaz Arsalan from Erbil Plains Forest Police told Rudaw Thursday.
“We immediately arrived on the scene, but with the dry wild weeds and strong winds, we couldn't get the fire under control. Five of the tourists have been arrested and brought to court,” he added. “It is very unfortunate. A large number of tourists are accustomed to visiting this forest,” said Arsalan.
Five suspects have been arrested by Erbil’s police in connection to the massive fire.
“If there were firebreaks, only 100 trees might have caught fire, not thousands. Our lands and crop residue too have all burned down due to the fire,” recounts Selim Fatah, a resident of the nearby village of Kani Shilana.
“The fire was very strong because of the wild weeds and bushes. It was difficult to extinguish. By the time we managed to put it out, we were exhausted,” recalls Fatah.
Local authorities in Erbil estimate that as many as 400 dunams (99 acres) of forestland caught fire.
The fire also destroyed all the oak trees that were planted in the forest this year.
Bakhtyar Rashid, an environmental activist, said “[the government] has spent around 600 to 700 million dinars on this forest. This is just the expense of loosening the ground to plant trees and gardening them. On top of that, we had brought one ton of oak seeds and planted them here this year. They all caught fire.”
Kasnazan forest is situated in eastern Erbil, and was built in 1998 on 840 dunams of land.
It contains a total of 60,000 trees of various kinds, including pine trees.
There are 22 other artificial forests in Erbil province, built on 8,346 dunams of land.
Translation by Zhelwan Z. Wali
Video editing by Abdulbasit Ibrahim
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