The fire on the Dzharylhach Island in the Kherson region destroys the entire protected area of the natural park

A fire has been raging on Dzharylhach Island in the Kherson region for almost a week. It destroyed the entire protected area of the natural park.

Iryna Sabashenko, Head of the Dzharylhach National Park, stated this in a comment to Suspilne.

It is an area of more than 1500 hectares, where most of the island's steppe ecosystems were concentrated, as well as populations of all rare animals.

According to Sabashenko, it will take 4 to 12 years to restore the steppe, meadow, and salt marsh areas and 15 to 30 years to restore the еamarisk thickets.

Currently endangered plants are listed in the Green Book of Ukraine. They belong to rare and endangered species.

"This is a grouping of Cladium mariscus, Stipa borysthenica, Stipa capillata, Dianthus bessarabicus, Chrysopogon gryllus, and others," the Head said.

A resident of one of the temporarily occupied settlements in the Kherson region told Suspilne that the fire on Dzharylhach was visible from the coast of the bay, ten kilometres from the island. The smoke has been visible for the past few days.

"We are estimating the damage, but it is already worth billions of hryvnias. The fire is still going on, so we don't have accurate data," added Iryna Sabashenko.

Photo: illustrative collage