Context: As per the latest data from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, more than 5 lakh incidents of forest fires have been reported from just 5 states of India, which account for nearly 50% of India’s forest fire incidents over the last five seasons (2019-2024).
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts about Forest Fire.
Forest Fires in India
- In 2019, the National Disaster Management Plan by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) recognised forest fires as one of the national disasters.
- According to the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021, over 36% of the country’s forest cover is estimated to be vulnerable to frequent forest fires, during the November to June period.
- Of this, 2.81% is classified as extremely fire-prone, while 7.85% falls under the very highly fire-prone category.
- According to the latest data from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, five states of India, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh account for nearly 50% of India’s forest fire incidents over the last five seasons (2019-2024).
- Top three States where the most fire incidences were observed in 2023-24 season: Uttarakhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
Factors that help the spread of Forest Fires
- High aridity
- Above-normal day temperatures
- Clear sky conditions and calm winds
- High tree density
- Note: As per FSI, severe fires break out in dry deciduous forests.
Causes of Forest Fires
Forest fires are caused by both anthropogenic as well as natural reasons:
Benefits of Forest Fires
- Small and controlled fires in the form of prescribed burning are very useful and essential for good natural forest development and regeneration. As they keep the forest floor free from the natural annual build-up of the litter thereby reducing risk of catastrophic forest fire, improving silvicultural opportunities, increasing forage and habitat opportunities for wildlife, enhancing biodiversity etc.
- According to the FSI:
- Severe fires break out in dry deciduous forests, while evergreen, semi-evergreen, and montane temperate forests are comparatively less prone to fires.
- Forests in southern India are comparatively less vulnerable to fires, as the vegetation type is mainly evergreen or semi-evergreen.
Negative Impacts of Forest Fires
- Biodiversity change: In Himalayas, fires have made the situation less favorable for oaks to grow and favorable for chir/pine to grow.
- Reduced soil moisture creates a possibility of forest fire in future.
- Reduce water infiltration due to heat induced chemical and physical changes in upper layer of soil which makes it impervious.
- Enhanced global warming: Due to destruction of forest Carbon sequestration potential and addition of newer emissions such as carbon monoxide, methane hydrocarbons, nitric oxide and nitrous oxide that led to global warming and ozone layer depletion.
- Microclimate change caused by removal of litter and duff, opening of the canopy by killing over storey shrubs and trees and darkening of the soil surface by residual soot and charcoal can increase insulation causing temperature increase.
- Soil erosion: Intense Forest fire always has a direct heating effect on soil at the depth below 7 to 10 cm. As a result, soil of the fire affected area loses its water holding capacity and becomes vulnerable for erosion.
- Flooding due to water repellent soils and cover loss give rise to higher chances of floods.