Incidents of forest fire in recent times
California forest fire of 2018
Scandinavian forest fire in summers of 2018
El-Nino events and extensive forest fires of Australia in 2010
Forest fires of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh in 2016
Forest fires of Western Ghats 2015 and 2017
Causes of forest fire
Forest fires are caused by Natural causes as well as Man-made causes
Natural Causes
Many forest fires start from natural causes such as lightning which set trees on fire
High atmospheric temperatures and dryness (low humidity) offer favourable circumstance for a fire to start. In dry season, friction leading to sparks by rolling stones in the mountainous areas may lead to forest fires
In bamboo areas, forest fires may occur by the rubbing together of clumps of dry bamboos.
Volcanic eruptions also lead to forest fires naturally
In the past twenty years, the fire events in India have strongly been linked with the presence of El Nino conditions affecting the monsoon movements.
Man-made causes
More than 90% forest fires are caused by human beings, deliberately (for personal gains or rivalry) or merely due to negligence or just by accident. Forest fires sometimes originate due to accidental or unintentional reasons.
Graziers and gatherers of various forest products starting small fires to obtain good grazing grass as well as to facilitate gathering of minor forest produce like flowers of Madhuca indica and leaves of Diospyros melanoxylon
The centuries old practice of shifting cultivation (especially in the North-Eastern region of India and in parts of the States of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh).
The use of fires by villagers to ward off wild animals
For concealing the illicit felling – Smugglers and poachers many times start forest fires to hide the stumps of illicit felling. The poachers use forest fires for terrorizing wild animals and hunting too.
Fires started accidentally by careless visitors to forests who discard cigarette butts.
Burning farm residue- After a harvest, farmers set fire to their agricultural fields. Many times, when these fires are not put out completely, may spread to the adjoining forest areas
After the Intervention of NGT, the central government has framed National Action Plan on Forest Fire
- Forest Risk Zonation and mapping
- Prevention of forest fires
- Effective communication strategy for awareness generation
- Capacity building for communities
- Increasing the resilience of forests to fires
- Forest floor biomass management
- Forest fire preparedness
- Digitization of forest boundaries
- Promoting greater adoption of the Forest Fire Alert System:
- Improving Ground based Detection
- Strengthening engagement with local communities:
- Fire suppression through training of staff
- Post fire management
- Coordination with other agencies