Dense smoke reduced visibility due to which traffic came to a crawl.
With forest fires still raging in Himachal Pradesh, commuters had to face a tough time on National Highway 22 near Kumarhatti in Solan district on Tuesday.
Drivers had to negotiate with raging fire at several places as it kept on spreading at nearby hills for about an hour on Tuesday afternoon. Dense smoke also reduced visibility due to which traffic came to a crawl at this stretch.
At least 93 fire spots have been reported from eight districts of Shimla, Solan, Kullu, Sirmaur, Chamba, Kangra and Una over the past one week. Major fires were reported from at least 15 places in these districts.
Shimla received little rainfall on Tuesday afternoon which doused simmering fire in the forests on the outskirts of the capital.
The fires have caused a lot of damage to flora and fauna leading to allegations that it was man-made.
Rajesh, a local contractor, told NDTV, "Most cases of fire happen as villagers set fire to dead pine leaves to clear them to allow grass to grow on the hills during rains, but on several occasions these go out of control."
The opposition BJP has blamed the wood mafia for the forest fires.
BJP spokesperson Ganesh Dutt said, "Wood mafia is to be blamed for this, the government has turned a blind eye, we demand thorough enquiry into forest fire incidents."
Principal chief conservator of forests, SP Vasudev, said, "There is provision of three years of imprisonment under Indian Penal Code if someone deliberately causes fire in woods, we will act tough is any such mischief comes to our notice."