FOREST FIRE

Saurabh Pandey

UPSC Faculty

• Ques. Identify the correct statement/s about Forest fire.

1. It can be caused by anthropogenic reasons only.

2. Himalayan region is least vulnerable to forest fire.

a) 1 only b) 2 only

c) 1 and d) Neither 1 nor 2

Forest fire

Kurangi hills

THENI DISTRICTTAMIL NADU

WESTERN GHATS.

IS THIS THE FIRST INCIDENCE?• UTTARAKHAND- MAY 2016.

• HIMACHAL PRADESH.

• USA- 4-5 MILLION HECTARE LAND BURN EVERY YEAR.

WHAT IS FOREST?

• Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) “Land with a tree canopy cover of more than 10 percent and area of more than 0.5 hectare” .

WHAT IS FOREST FIRE

F

FIRE BURNING UNCONTROLLEDAREA WITH

TIMBER,BUSH ETC

CAUSES OF FOREST FIRE

Natural

Anthropogenic

Natural causes• Natural causes account for about 10% of all wildfires.

• 1. Lightening

• Volcanic eruption

• Meteorites (eg Peru)

Anthropogenic causes• 90% of all wildfires are caused by

humans.

• Smoking

• people smoking while driving, walking or biking and after finishing they would just throw away the cigarette butt without completely putting it out.

• Unattended camp fire

• Burning debris

• Firework

• Poachers and timber mafia.

• Shifting Cultivation: The shifting cultivation is the farming practice where forest land is allowed to return to forest crop after a shorter period of use. In such practices, the forest vegetation are cut at the end of rainy season and allowed over to dry for some period and then burnt.

Climate change and forest fire

Forest fire

Increase in average temperature

Dry seasonAvailability of fuel

in the form of timber, dry grasses

Human and natural causes for ignition

• Heavy rainfall—more vegetation-next year no rainfall—drying of vegetation—act as fuel-vulnerable to forest fire.

FOREST FIRE GLOBAL SCENARIO

• 1. MEDITERRANEAN

• 2. NORTH AMERICA

• 3. CONIFEROUS FOREST--RESIN

• Global Forest Resources Assessment -2010 (a report prepared by FAO- UN)

1. In 118 countries (having 65 percent of world forest cover) 19.8 million hectare of forest is affected by fire annually.

2. The largest areas of forest affected by fire were reported by Chad, Australia, United States of America, India and Canada, which all reported an average of more than 1 million hectares of forest burnt annually.

FOREST FIRE IN INDIA• India constitutes one of the mega bio-diversity

zones of the world.

• India has about 1.7 mh of productive conifer forest, with various valuable timber species i.e. spruce, deodar, kail, teak, sal and chir pine.

• Out of total forest area, very high, high and frequent forest fire damage are noticed over 0.84 percent, 0.14 percent and 5.16 percent of the forest areas respectively. Thus, about 6.14 percent of the forests are prone to severe re damage .( REPORT OF FOREST SURVEY OF INDIA 1995)

• The forest fire is dependent on three essential components i.e. fuel, oxygen and heat. Availability of these three components is not uniform throughout the country's forest and thus the forest fire situation in the country is not uniform.

• The coniferous forest in the Himalayan region comprising of (Albies spp), spruce (Piceasmithiana), Cedrus deodra, Pinus roxburgii and P. Wallichiana etc. is very prone to fire. The most vulnerable stretches of the world to forest fire are the youngest mountain ranges of Himalayas.

• With large scale expansion of chir forests in Himalayan mountains, the frequency and intensity of forest fires have increased alarmingly.

• Because of the more rain density, the forests of Eastern Himalayas are less vulnerable to forest as compared to those in Western Himalayas .

• The forest fire season throughout the country is not same. Depending upon the type of vegetation, the climate and various other factors, the re season varies from one part to other. Though the major forest fire season in the country varies from February to June.

Benefits of forest fire• A regular occurrence of fires can reduce

the amount of fuel build-up thereby lowering the likelihood of a potentially large wildland fire.

• Fires often remove alien plants that compete with native species for nutrients and space, and remove undergrowth, which allows sunlight to reach the forest floor, thereby supporting the growth of native species.

• The ashes that remain after a fire add nutrients often locked in older vegetation to the soil for trees and other vegetation.

• Fires can also provide a way for controlling insect pests by killing off the older or diseased trees and leaving the younger, healthier trees.

• Burned trees provide habitat for nesting birds, homes for mammals and a nutrient base for new plants. When these trees decay, they return even more nutrients to the soil.

Management of forest fire• The forests management is currently

relying upon massive afforestation, efficient use of wastelands, reclamation of waste lands, management of natural forests, increasing productivity of existing ecosystems, efficient utilization of wood and non timber forest produce (NTFP) .

• The Panchayats, local bodies, MahilaMandals, NGOs etc. are influencing the behaviour of rural masses towards forests.

• To achieve the target set by new National Forest Policy of 110 million hectares under forest cover, it becomes imperative to evolve and implement intensive result oriented forest fire management programme in the country .

• As prevention is better than cure, a preventive program of zoning, danger rating, early warning and real time monitoring has to be designed and installed.

• At the strategy level, coordination with Government agencies like the National Remote

Sensing Agency, Forest Survey of India, the Meteorological Department, the All India Radio

and the State-owned television should be promoted by the forest departments of the

States to plan their actions in the fire season .

• Fire experiment stations should be set up in representative regions to study various effects of fires in different ecosystems .

• Increased vigilance by appointment of adequate number of firewatchers during the month of April, May and June, which used to be the practice earlier.

• Efforts for finding alternative uses for pine needles should be supported by the Government so as to demonstrate their economic viability

• The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests initiated a project “Modern Forest Fire Control

Project" in 1984 –1990 assisted by United Nations Development Program in two States of U.P. and

Maharashtra.

• QUES. How participation of people can help in the management of forest fire?( 150 words)