Wild summer fires continue to devastate large forest tracts in the UP hills. In the four-year cycle, this time about 60,000 hectares of green cover in Garhwal and Kumaon is reported to have been gutted though summer has just begun. Four years ago, in 1995, about 80,000 hectors of forests had been lost to wild summer fires both in the Kumaon and Garhwal forests. This time, this figure has nearly been touched much before the peak summer season.