Explainer: Are forest fires in India increasing?

New Delhi, March 30 (SocialNews.XYZ) As the visuals of IAF choppers carrying large buckets of water to douse the forest fire in Sariska Tiger Reserve went viral on social media on Tuesday, several people linked it with the prevailing heat wave conditions in northwest India, including large parts of Rajasthan.

Still many others said that the changing climatic conditions are bound to increase such forest fires in India. But is it the case?

Two IAF helicopters flew more than 10 hours on Tuesday dispensing more than 33,500 litres of water over the affected area in Sariska, and the operation that continued on Wednesday, following which the Rajasthan government said on Wednesday that as much as 80 per cent of the fire has been controlled. The cause of the fire has not yet been ascertained.

But Sariska is neither the only place nor Rajasthan the only state that saw forest fire. According to the Forest Survey of India (FSI) report, the forest fire season in the country is normally from November to June and with majority fires being caused due to man-made reasons.

More than 36 per cent of India's forest cover has been estimated to be prone to frequent fires. Nearly four per cent of the forest cover is extremely prone to fire whereas six per cent is found to be very highly fire prone, the FSI report said.

During the forest fire season 2019-2020, the number of hotspots detected by two satellite sensors was 22,447 and 1,24,473 while in the fire season 2020-21, the total hotspots were 52,785 and 3,45,989 respectively.

In 2020-21, among the states, the maximum number of fire detections were observed in Odisha (51,968) followed by Madhya Pradesh (47,795), and Chhattisgarh (38,106); Rajasthan does not even figure in the top 10.

The FSI issues pre-fire alerts using overlaying factors such as rainfall, rather the deficit of rain, inputs from the Meteorological Department, satellite data from NASA and the forest cover layer etc. "Apart from these pre-fire alerts, we also issue a Fire Danger Rating System. After the pilot that started in 2016, we started for all India from 2019-20," said Sunil Chandra from the FSI.

Using two satellites' inputs, the FSI generates real time alerts about forest fires every six hours and those are sent to state Forest Departments. "Also, there are 1.36 lakh registered users of our service, including NGOs, Panchayats, state departments and even individuals," Chandra said.

Heat wave & Climate Change

Since mid-March, large parts of Rajasthan, including Alwar district - home to Sariska Tiger Reserve - have been witnessing heat wave conditions.

"The forest fires in the Sariska Tiger Reserve look like a case of extreme heat exacerbating the fire. The intensity and increasing frequency of forest fire also points to the dangers this poses for biodiversity and the decades of efforts which have gone into wildlife conservation. These temperatures are much ahead of any predicted seasonal heat waves and speaks to non-linear impacts of climate change in some ways," said Aarti Khosla, Director, Climate Trends, an advocacy non-profit.

This was echoed Ravi Chellam, a member of Biodiversity Collaborative, a network of institutions and individuals promoting biodiversity research and conservation.

"Forest fires are part of the natural ecology of many ecosystems across the world. In fact, there are many habitats and species which are fire dependent. (But) It is the increasing frequency, intensity and scale of these fires which is aided and exacerbated by climate change and that too in the context of accelerating loss, fragmentation and degradation of habitats which is the problem."

Former Member Secretary, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Rajesh Gopal, however, differed.

"India does not have forest fires due to increased natural heat wave conditions unlike the bush fires in other countries. We mostly have man-made fires. The only thing is, heat waves means biomass is dry and that helps spread the fire faster," Gopal said.

Forest fire is not a new thing either for Sariska or Rajasthan but the extent to which fire spread this time is larger, he said, adding, the bigger animals are hardly affected but damages ground nesting and smaller animals. "If there are shortfalls in prevention measures, the fire can turn into crown fire, in which case, a large number of trees are lost," he said.

A WWF International report from 2020 estimated that humans are responsible for around 75 per cent of all wildfires and much of the increase in fire incidents during 2020 can be directly linked to human actions.

Source: IANS