Massive wildfire breaks out in Pakistan's Margalla hills forest area

Islamabad [Pakistan], June 7 (ANI): Amid the searing heatwaves and increasing temperature, a fire broke out in the forest in Islamabad's Sector H-12 on Tuesday, following the back-to-back wildfires in the Margalla hills here.
The huge flames and smoke could be seen from far away, the News International reported.
The report said that the fire brigade officials reached the incident spot to douse the blaze, after being informed.
Taking it to Twitter, the Margalla hills forest area (CDA) of Islamabad stated that "teams along with MCI are working to control the fire at H12 forest."
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed the CDA to take emergency measures, after taking notice of the fire and asked for immediate steps to evacuate the people from the affected area.
He directed the mobilisation of rescue services on an urgent basis immediately to extinguish the fire and urged the Ministry of Climate Change to present a comprehensive strategy to prevent such incidents in Islamabad and Margalla hills in the future, the News International reported.
Though the reason for the fire is yet to be ascertained, it is pertinent to note that the country is grappling with climate change as it has been witnessing severe heatwave conditions with temperatures surpassing 50 degrees Celsius recently.
According to the climate minister, Pakistan had faced the warmest months on record since 1961, with temperatures ranging from 3 to 6 degrees centigrade warmer than normal.
Pakistan had a harsh and lengthy heatwave, the longest one in the country's history.
Besides this, Pakistan continues to struggle with the electricity and gas outages, the protestors at multiple places in the country demonstrated against the federal government demanding an immediate supply of electricity and natural gas.
The country is also witnessing nationwide protests on the water shortage, as the water crisis has broken a 22-year record in Pakistan as the provinces face a 50 per cent shortage of water and there is 97 per cent water scarcity in reservoirs, as per the details released by the Indus River System Authority (IRSA). (ANI)