A five-day fire that raged through the Bandipur Tiger Reserve has reportedly burnt more than 15,400 acres of forests.
Concerns:
- Increase in intensity and frequency.
- long-term damage to the ecosystem.
- Effects on Nilgiri Biosphere that hosts the world’s largest tiger population, at more than 575 (2014 census).
Why there is increase in intensity and frequency?
- Bandipur is a dry deciduous forest in the rain shadow region of the Western Ghats, and is no stranger to fires. Periods of drought invariably lead to fires. Between 1974 and 2014, 67% of the Nilgiri Biosphere had seen some form of forest fire, with Bandipur having reported the most incidents.
- The 2018 monsoon was particularly strong, but the year-end northeast monsoon has failed. If the monsoon led to dense growth, the blistering heat since September has turned vegetation brittle and dry, with vast swathes becoming tinderboxes.
- Besides, as with most forest fires, it is assumed that Bandipur’s ignition was man-made as miscreants set fire in multiple locations. Compounding matters is the ubiquity of lantana camara, an invasive weed species native to South America, that has spread through nearly two-thirds of the forest area.
Impacts of Forest Fires on Environment:
- Fires are a major cause of forest degradation and have wide ranging adverse ecological, economic and social impacts.
- Loss of valuable timber resources.
- Degradation of catchment areas.
- Loss of biodiversity and extinction of plants and animals.
- Global warming.
- Loss of carbon sink resource and increase in percentage of CO2 in atmosphere.
- Change in the microclimate of the area with unhealthy living conditions.
- Soil erosion affecting productivity of soils and production.
- Ozone layer depletion.
- Loss of livelihood for tribal people and the rural poor.
Why forest fires are important?
- India’s forest policy encourages a zero forest fire approach for its protected landscapes — whether it is Bandipur or the rainforests of the upper Western Ghats.
- Scientific literature has shown this blanket approach may be doing harm to dry, deciduous forests where trees have evolved to co-exist with fire.
- The trees in this landscape were closer to those in a savanna than in rainforests 100 km away. Trees have dramatically thicker barks, implying that they had evolved to be fire-resistant.
- When fires are relatively frequent, adult tree mortality in these systems is very low. Many saplings sprout shortly after the fire from underground reserves, and the system returns to its original state in a few years.
- Conversely, when fires are suppressed — including by curbing the tribal practices of controlled fire burning — a greater biomass builds up that can lead to high intensity fires which affect the ecosystem negatively.