Mystery Fires in Khanaqin Destroying Palm Groves

[Aslan]

KHANAQIN, Kurdistan Region – Wild fires in Iraq’s northern Khanaqin region have destroyed eight palm groves this year – the last just a week ago -- raising accusations of arson and negligence.

“We still don’t know the real cause of the fires, but we have a team investigating them.” Khanaqin Mayor Mohammed Mala Hassan, told Rudaw.

Hassan said that the local government has very strict rules about preserving the groves and other orchards in his area and that people destroying fruit trees are open to prosecution.

He said that after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, some low-income people were allowed to clear trees and build homes for themselves. “But now, that has stopped and it is only allowed to remove trees in order to build houses.”

Hassan believes a cause of the recent fires could be negligence by the owners, who have abandoned their trees and groves.

“Some of these orchards are 150 years old,” he said. “They have been handed down from one generation to another, but the current generation can’t be bothered to look after their trees and they leave them to fires.”

He said that the proprietors of some of the groves now live abroad, including the owner of the latest grove that caught fire last week, who lives in the Netherlands. He said that his office is trying to locate the owner.

Officials at Khanaqin’s fire department suspect arsonists to be behind last week’s fire. Earlier this year, seven other palm groves were destroyed in fires.

Salam Abdullah, member of the Committee for the Protection of the Interests of Khanaqin, said that in the past six years, 135 orchards have been burned in devastating fires. “Some orchards have caught fire more than once,” he said.

Abdullah urged the people of his town, particularly educated professionals, to join hands and raise awareness about the need to protect the groves.

Fayaq Shahab, a farmer and owner of an orchard outside the city, accused the government of ignoring farmers’ needs. “The government has ignored their needs and gives them no incentive to preserve their trees,” he charged.

“The government must provide water and petrochemicals so that we can use our orchards,” he said.

But Kamaran Abdullah, head of the Khanaqin department of agriculture, rejected that argument. “This year alone we have given hundreds of kilograms of petrochemicals of the best international world quality to farmers,” he said. He added that the total area of groves destroyed by fires equaled about 60 acres.

Khanaqin, which until 2003 was under the jurisdiction of the central government in Baghdad, is now run by the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. The region’s warm climate and dry summer season makes it suitable for date palms, pomegranates and orange trees.