Forest ministry to devise new strategy to fight forest fires as new season begins | Mint

New Delhi: The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is planning to bring out a new playbook for forest fire fighting, including designing of forest fire equipment and customised machinery, two officials said.

Forest fires begin after the monsoon and increase in the summer months. The forest fire season begins in November and ends in June. About 203,000 incidents of forest fires were recorded in India last year (2023-24).

According to the Forest Survey of India’s (FSI) India State of Forest Report 2019, more than 36% of forest area is prone to frequent fires. 4% is highly prone to fire, and 6% is extremely prone to fire.

“So, we are gearing up for the next season with better equipment and adapted machinery as climate change could add to the challenges. Nobody knew Delhi would witness such a bad summer that would affect forests, drain out moisture and dry out wood materials. When the fire burns for a long time, animals have no choice but to move away and if the habitation is nearby, it could also lead to human-animal conflict,” said one of the officials.

As part of the plan, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is organising a two-day workshop in Bhopal early next month where response or mitigation tools will be discussed.

“Through this workshop we are bringing all the stakeholders, including all state governments/UTs, potential industries, NITs and IITs, under one roof. It is a kind of brainstorming session. It is still in the deliberation stage but the concept is about designing forest fire equipment and customised machinery. It will be response equipment. The exact title is being worked out,” the second official said.

“The number of forest fires is reducing. We had about 203,000 large forest fire cases (spreading over 40 hectares) in the 2023-24 forest fire season, while the number was 204,000 a year ago. Our effort is to reduce it as much as possible. Also, we need to equip people with operational-friendly equipment. This is our broad view. We will discuss the existing inventory and their operational effectiveness, efficiency, user-friendliness and challenges in the workshop and explore design, optimization, new and modern equipment,” the official said.

However, environmentalists say that the incidence, frequency, intensity and area burnt in forest fires have been increasing since the last two decades and hence urgent action is required at various levels.

Queries sent to the secretary and spokesperson of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on Tuesday could not be answered till press time.

Every year large areas of forests are affected by fires of varying intensity and extent. Based on forest inventory records, 54.40% of forests in India are exposed to occasional fires, 7.49% are exposed to moderately frequent fires and 2.40% are at high incidence level, while 35.71% of India’s forests have not yet been affected by fires of any real significance.

Wildfires must be understood from two perspectives—the ecosystem and the loss and damage. From an ecosystem perspective, wildfires are essential to the forest because in the forest, many trees evolved with fire and depend on it to regenerate. Occasional fires can reduce fuel loads that promote larger, more destructive fires.

“They also help forests get rid of their natural waste such as dry grass, tree needles and thick undergrowth. Similarly, we also need fire for pests and diseases in the forest ecosystem. So, to a certain extent, fire is very much needed for the survival of forests. If you remove forest fires completely, you will indirectly remove some trees from the forest. Humans are not going to go and plant these trees.”

All these are inflicted by some animals or helped by nature in various ways like water, rain and fire. When the fire lasts for a long time, it becomes a real challenge. Small fires are fine, but when it lasts for a long time and covers a large area, it is serious. That is when we have to react. The effort is to reduce it, the second official said.

‘Frequency, intensity have been increasing over the past twenty years’

“The frequency, intensity, number and burnt area of ​​forest fires have been increasing for the last twenty years. This is due to climate change. In some years, the number of cases may be less and the next year it may be more than the previous few years. So, the overall trend is increasing. In some ecosystems, forest fires are natural. Some forests require fire to regenerate, but most forest fires in India are triggered by human activities, whether they have lit it due to collection of tendu leaves (Indian ebony used for wrapping bidis) or cleared the forest area. After the monsoon, the forests dry up from January onwards, the temperature is high, and the air temperature is high. Climate change is creating the perfect conditions for forest fires and humans are the ones triggering it,” said Chandra Bhushan, Founder-CEO of International Environment, Sustainability and Technology Forum (iFOREST).

“Forest fires cause air pollution, destruction of biodiversity, plant and animal life, deaths of forest rangers, guards, local communities and tourists, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Forest fires in the Himalayas are now being linked to air pollution in the Indo-Gangetic plains. Every tree you burn releases CO2. The impact is devastating.”

“In some cases, people burn forests for short-term economic gains. For example, clearing land and burning bushes for better tendu leaf collection. They do it for better leaves that can be rolled into beedis, but the long-term impact is devastating; it leads to economic losses. Forests are destroyed, soil is degraded and air pollution occurs. In short, there may be some short-term economic gains but in the long run, it is an economic loss,” Bhushan said.

The annual loss due to forest fires in India has been estimated at around Rs 100 crore. 440 crores. This estimate does not include the loss of biodiversity, nutrients and soil moisture and other intangible benefits. India witnessed its worst forest fires in the summer of 1995 in the hills of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh in the north-western Himalayas. The fires affected an area of ​​677,700 hectares. The quantitative loss of timber was approx. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the number is 175 million. These numbers and estimates may have increased over the past two decades; the latest data is not immediately available.

What should be done?

“There is still a lot to be done. One, certain practices that exist for minor forest products, like setting fire to forests to collect minor forest products, need to be discouraged, communities need to be encouraged to ensure that such practices do not take place. Second, historically, communities have been engaged in forest fire control. We have close to 300 million people living in and around forests. So, we need to use the existing community to protect our forests and prevent forest fires. In short, we need to operationalise it, encourage communities so that they can control forest fires, they can work with forest guards and forest officials to do so,” Bhushan suggested.

“The third agenda is to provide adequate resources to the Forest Department for forest fire control, which means satellite monitoring, early warning systems, availability of forest fire control equipment, preparation before the forest fire season. Most importantly, not to promote monoculture. Most forest fires occur in plantations or forests where monoculture is done.”

FSI is alerting the State Forest Departments six times in 24 hours about forest fire events detected by MODIS sensors on board NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites and SNPP-VIRS sensor, and the alerts issued by FSI are based on near real time fire point data processed by National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad.