The governor of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Eduardo Riedel, declared a state of emergency this Monday, June 24, due to an increase of more than 2000% in the number of fires in the Pantanal region, the largest floodplain in the world. . Mato Grosso do Sul is home to 151,000 of the 195,000 square kilometers of the Brazilian Pantanal, with the remaining 44,000 located in the neighboring state of Mato Grosso.
According to data published by INPE, the National Institute of Space Research, which monitors the Pantanal in real time, until this Sunday, June 23, 3,262 fires were recorded in this biome, an alarming increase of 2,200% compared to the same period in the Pantanal. last year, 2023. Even more concerning is that this new record of fire outbreaks occurred from January to June, when historically the Pantanal’s drought and fire period did not begin until late July.
Corumba, the most important city of the Pantanal, witnessed frightening scenes this Sunday, broadcast in detail on television, with thick layers of smoke, soot and debris covering the streets, houses and people participating in the traditional festivities of São João. The most terrible footage is shown. a crowd is having fun on one bank of the Paraguay River, which washes the city, and on the other bank a giant flame is senselessly destroying vegetation, driven by very strong winds, the situation is repeated in dozens of other locations.
If people suffer from the smoke but nevertheless try to protect themselves, for better or worse, by locking themselves in their homes and seeking help from hospitals to fight respiratory diseases, the animals of the Pantanal die by the thousands. Other images that also shocked Brazil over the weekend showed huge alligators, dead and completely charred because they were unable to escape the oncoming flames in time, as well as animals of many other species, including jaguars, the symbol of the Pantanal, fleeing for their lives. in despair from the flames that engulfed everything.
The figures confirmed by INPE until this Sunday already exceed those recorded in June 2020, the year of the greatest environmental tragedy in the Pantanal, when fire destroyed 4.5 million hectares of forest. Only now, after months of unusual drought in a region that is usually punished by heavy rains and floods from the beginning to the middle of the year, and only after criticism caused by photographs of the weekend, the government of President Lula da Silva announced this Monday the dispatch of seven firefighting aircraft and 60 personnel National forces in Mato Grosso do Sul, which is belated and insufficient assistance when tens of thousands of hectares of forest and agricultural sites are burning in various parts. biome.