Rajiv Sharma, J.

1. On the oral request of learned counsel for the petitioner, the Ministry of Railways is added as respondent in the array of the parties.

2. The Court has taken a judicial notice of the frequent occurrence of forest fires and devastation caused to the forest wealth, ecology, economy and environment on the basis of news items. This Court had also directed the respondents to file affidavits on various issues on 02.05.2016. The affidavit was filed by the State on 07.05.2016. In the affidavit, filed on behalf of Union of India, it is stated that as per the information received from the Government of Uttarakhand, 922 fires have been reported during the current fire season upto 29.04.2016, effecting 1890.79 hectares of land, causing an estimated damage of Rs.18,01,695. The Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has constituted a team of experts to undertake a visit to the affected areas to take stock of the situation and to suggest appropriate measures to prevent forest fires in addition to rescue the affected persons and to take other measures to e