A criminal case has been sent to the Irkutsk District Court against a local resident accused of committing a crime under Part 1 of Art. 261 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (damage to forest plantations). As Kommersant was told in the press service of the prosecutor’s office of the Irkutsk region, the man, through negligence, set fire to the forest, causing damage of 98 million rubles.
“According to the inquiry, in May of this year, the accused threw a smoldering cigarette butt into the grass at a zaimka in the Gorokhovsky district forestry near the village of Tikhonova Pad. Under the influence of the wind, the fire spread to the forest fund. More than 12 thousand cubic meters of forest on an area of 3.4 thousand hectares turned out to be damaged,” the press service of the department specified.
As a result of the spring-summer fire hazard period in the Irkutsk region, 41 criminal cases were initiated, the damage for which amounted to 170 million rubles. Seven criminal cases were sent to court, three were convicted by the courts.
In total, in 2022, in the Irkutsk region, according to the press service of the regional government, there were 745 forest fires on an area of 193.9 thousand hectares. The total damage is estimated at 690 million rubles.