We started the New Year with news of uncontrolled bushfires from all across Australia. According to a report by WRI burning of millions of acres of forest created perilous levels of air pollution, displaced a total of 90,000 people and killed around a billion animals. This makes people wonder whether Indian forests are equally vulnerable to such incidents. If yes, are we prepared enough?
According to IUCN, with only 2.4% of the earth’s land area, India accounts for 7-8% of the earth’s biodiversity. Forest ecosystem is one of the chief biodiversity reservoirs. India is home to a wide variety of forests spanning across a range of climatic zones. Indian forests are not only important from an ecological viewpoint but also from a socio-economic perspective. Over the years, unrelenting demands of fuel wood, fodder, timber, diversion of forest lands to agricultural and pastoral lands has put the forest resources under great pressure. Adding to these pressures Indian forests are also vulnerable to various natural and anthropogenic stressors like disease outbreak, landslides, forest fires etc.
In India fires are a major cause of forest degradation and have a wide range of adverse socio-economic and ecological impacts. UN-SPIDER defines forest/bush/vegetation fire as any uncontrolled and non prescribed combustion or burning of plants in a natural setting such as forest, grassland, brush land or tundra, which consumes the natural fuels and spreads based on environmental conditions.
Forest fire can be a result of natural or anthropogenic reason. According to FSI technical report of 2019 95% of the forest fires in India are incidences of anthropogenic activities. Most of these activities include clearing areas for shifting agriculture, clearing forest ground for Non Timber Forest Product (NTFP) collection, hunting/poaching activities while natural fires are caused because of lightning, rolling stones, friction of bamboos and stem of trees, etc.
Forest fire is generally classified into 3 types:
- Crown fire: Crown fire advances from trees to trees without any close impact and are the most destructive form of forest fire.
- Surface fire: Surface fire is a fast propagating fire which consumes the small vegetation, surface debris and litter.
- Ground fire: Ground fires are the most difficult to detect. Ground fire consumes the organic matter present on the forest floor beneath the surface litter. The flames are not visible with little or no smoke making them more difficult to detect.
However all forest fires is not bad. Fire is an important forest management tool which is necessary for the proper functioning of forest ecosystem. Controlled burning has been used as an important forest management tool however currently the changing climate has constrained the natural ecosystem and controlled burning must be done with extreme caution to avoid spreading of fire.
There is an alarming increase in the incidents of forest fires from 6762 in a year to 39145 in a year between the years 2002 to 2017 in India. According to the real time forest alert system of Forest Survey of India, a total of 188464 forest fire point shot up between January 2019 to June 2019. Between November 1, 2019 to January 28, 2020, 3048 out of 5130 fires were reported in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh that is 59.4% of the total forest fires reported. The increase in the frequency of forest fires in India can be attributed primarily to man-made interventions. For example, in the state of Maharashtra most of the cases of forest fire are a result of increased tussle between state forest department and tendu leaf contractors while the north eastern states are vulnerable because of their traditional slash and burn farming techniques. The current Forest Fire Alert System 3.0 uses near real time SNPP-VIIRS data. Periodic alerts are issued and further distributed via mobile SMS and emails.
Are the current forest policies effective enough to control forest fires? The Indian forest act of 1927 criminalises the act of carrying or burning fire in protected areas and reserve forests under section 26 & 33. Further section 30 of the Wildlife protection act 1972 prohibits setting fire to a sanctuary. These laws strictly prohibit fire in or around forest except for those set by forest department for controlled burning.
Prevention and management of forest fires have two major aspects i.e. policy and financing. The diversity in the Indian forest types makes it extremely difficult to prescribe a coherent policy which can be useful for every forest. The national forest policy recognises the extent of loss caused by forest fires and further stresses on the need for improved and modern management practices to deal with forest fires. As a follow up draft the National Forest Policy of 2018 identifies forest fire as a major threat to forests and further proposes mapping of vulnerable areas and strengthening of early warning systems along with awareness generation. Recognising the issue NGT directed MoEFCC to formulate a National Forest Fire Action Plan in the consultation with state governments for an effective management of forest fire.
Several states have recognised the importance of fire management tools and mentioned it in their forest policies. The states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana have incorporated aspects of forest fire management and prevention in their policies though a majority of the states are still in the process of forming a forest fire prevention or management plan.
The Comptroller and Auditor general (CAG) Report of the year 2017 stated that the forest department lacked sufficient funds to fight or take preventive measures to be taken against the forest fire. Shortfalls in resources were documented by several states and were one of the chief reasons for their failures in effectively tackling in forest fire. The report Status of Forest in India of 2019 by the parliamentary standing committee on science and technology, environment and forests criticised state forest department and centre for their inefficiency in prevention and management of incidents of forest fire across the country. The same report further mentions despite the constraint on funds there have been instances when the states failed to utilise the funds that were available to them. Though there has been an increase in the instance of forest fires in India the funds released have further decreased from 44.3 crore in 2016-17 to 34.5 crore in 2017-18.
The only centrally funded scheme assisting states to fight forest fire is the Forest fire Prevention and Management scheme (FPM). The scheme follows a centre-state cost sharing with a ratio of 90:10 in the north eastern and other Himalayan states of India, while a 60:40 ratio is adopted for the rest of the states. FPM scheme is the only dedicated scheme responsible for the prevention and management of forest fires in the states. It can further divert the funds under the National Afforestation Programme and Mission for Green India per the guidance of NITI Aayog applied under the Flexi-Funds (25% of the entire fund) and can be further used to meet the local needs and requirements. Additional funds required can be further made available through Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).Agreeing to the fact of constraint funds, why aren’t available funds being used efficiently & effectively for the purpose of tackling forest fire?
Despite having numerous policies which focus on forest fire be its prevention or prohibition. The states failed miserably in preventing an avoidable disaster. In the year 2019 a massive fire swept through Bandipur Tiger reserve gutting around 3000-5000 hectares of forest area in the park. This is a serious concern that despite taking all the measures, why is there a systematic failure of efforts in tackling forest fires effectively in India? Action based policies in India fail in terms of their implementation due to lack of an effective background study. This warrants the need for availability of relevant historical information. Following the collection of fire data, management of the database is very crucial for formulating an effective policy.
There must be some degree of consistent delivery at sub-national levels to community level for the policies which are formulated at centre. The MoEFCC must adopt bottom-up implementation of policies when policy impacts are localised in nature. Simply lifting modules of policies of other countries and attempting to implement them in the Indian context would not work given the diverse climatic conditions and vegetation patterns. The changing climate has decreased the resilience of the natural ecosystem and further slowed down the recovery of these systems. Thus ignorance of forest fire issues is really not advisable.
A firm policy and effective financing tool will assure minimal loss and maximum benefits from forest fire, helping India progress towards a bright sustainable future with healthy forests.
