ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Thousands of acres of forests and grassland have been destroyed in two weeks of bushfires across Iran. Images of the destruction wreaked by the blazes, including burnt carcasses of mountain goats, partridges, snakes, birds and other wildlife have been circulating on Iranian social media. Grassroots groups in the western, Kurdish region of Iran are tackling the wildfires head on. Mukhtar Khandani is spokesperson for the Zhiway Pawa Society, a Kurdish non-governmental organisation working to raise environmental consciousness across Iran. Nearly 300 acres of mountainside land around the western Iranian city of Paveh have been destroyed by the recent wildfires, he said, with about 100 members of the NGO working to extinguish the blazes. “We controlled the fires, but with strong winds blowing, they soon came back. Although the Iranian government has a department that extinguishes wildfires, they don’t have enough equipment or the workforce to do so.” Khandani told Rudaw English. In the mountains of Nowsood near Paveh, men put their lives in danger to extinguish the fierce fires with little to protect them. According to Mukhtar, three members of Zhiway Pawa have suffered burns, while others have incurred minor injuries. “The mountains are very high and rough," Mukhtar said. "There is a lot of thatch at the top of the mountains that can easily catch fire. It’s hard to stand on your feet and if you aren’t alert, you may slide down the mountain into the 180-meter deep lake.” According to Khandani, the main reason for the wildfires is deforestation, with locals chopping down trees for their own use.
