280 thousand hectares of forest have been burned in Transbaikalia since the beginning of the year.

In the Trans-Baikal Territory, 878 landscape fires have occurred on an area of more than 300 thousand hectares since the beginning of the current 2025. Of these, there are 302 forest fires on a total area of more than 280 thousand hectares.

These figures were announced by Viktor Minin, Deputy head of the Department of Administrative Practice and Inquiry of the regional Ministry of Emergency Situations, during the round table "Why is Transbaikalia burning so much?": who is to blame and what to do?" On Monday, April 21, the correspondent of the ChitaMedia news agency reports.

Since the beginning of the fire season, a 69% increase in forest fires has been recorded, while a 36% decrease in dry grass has been observed. As of this morning, 41 forest fires are active in the region, three of them are localized.

According to Minin, 71 culprits of fires have already been identified. Of these, 57 (including 29 children) set grass on fire and 14 (of whom two were minors) started forest fires. The inspectors issued fines of more than 300 thousand rubles.

Also, on April 21, an operational meeting was held on the situation with natural and forest fires in Transbaikalia. It was conducted by the Head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of Russia Alexander Kurenkov and Alexander Kozlov. According to their data, there are currently 50 forest fires in the region on an area of about 168 thousand hectares.

Earlier it was reported that about 380 camera traps will be set up in the forests of the Trans-Baikal Territory to search for arsonists. Information from the devices will be sent to the control room immediately.