Table of Contents
- Environment
- Conservation,
- Environmental pollution and degradation
- Environmental impact assessment
- As the temperatures in Uttarakhand continue to rise, large parts of the hill state are under raging fire.
- By Wednesday, the area under forest fires reached 2,037.77 hectares, which is 793 hectares more than the land impacted by forest fires last year.
- The state forest department, which records forest fire instances between February 15 and June 15 each year, noted a rise in the forest fire instances since Monday when the area under forest fire crossed 1,000 hectares.
- On Tuesday, 88 fresh forest fire incidents were noted, and the area engulfed by the fire increased to 1,213.77 hectares.
- On Wednesday, 295 fresh forest fire incidents were noted and the area under the fire reached 2,037.77 hectares.
MAIN REASON FOR INCREASE IN THE FREQUENCY OF FOREST FIRE?
- Increase in temperature & Reduced precipitation due to climate change
- Presence of pine trees in most of the areas is also one of the important reason for forest fires.
- Pine trees produce a lot of sap, also known as rosin , which is highly flammable and burns very hot, more so than many other species of trees.
FOREST FIRES IN UTTARAKHAND
- The menace of forest fires is by no means new.
- Since the formation of Uttarakhand in 2000, the hill state has lost 44,518 hectares of forest land to fire.
- The unabated fires are a grim reminder that not much has changed since 4,538 hectares were gutted in 2016, the worst year on record.
- Mitigation techniques seemed to have had little or no effect at all.
- Since 1984, the forests of the Western Himalayas have burned every summer.
- There were forest fires before then, too, but when locals extinguished them, they would remain extinguished.
- Today, barely anyone attempts to fight a fire.
INADEQUATE MEASURES TO DEAL WITH FOREST FIRES
- The chief conservator of forests has remained a toothless tiger.
- The post was especially created to fight forest fires after devastating blazes in the year 2016.
- A former official who held the position told that,
- “I had no power to make budgetary allocations, initiate surveys or research. Forest fire management needs statewide long- term policies, but there was no provision for that.”
- The Forest Drone Force is also stretched thin.
- Apart from checking for illegal mining and poaching, the fleet of aerial vehicles has to watch out for the fires.
IMPACT ON BIODIVERSITY
- The state with a forest cover of 71.05% is a rich repository of herbs, while the wildlife diversity here is also unique.
- More than half of the species of birds found all over the country are found here.
- Uttarakhand is providing more than three lakh crore eco- system services annually due to water-forest-land.
- Despite this, there is also a mountain-like challenge in front of biodiversity in this hill state.
- Uncontrolled exploitation of bioresources is taking place, so the predators-smugglers are obsessed with wildlife.
- Unplanned development has also affected the biodiversity here.
IMPACT ON HIMALAYAS
- Fires destroy biodiversity directly and have more indirect long-term impacts.
- It has been suggested that the dark carbon dust emitted by the fires deposited on Himalayan glaciers could hasten their melting.
- This could affect the hydrology of the rivers that are a source of water for human populations in northern India.
HOW FOREST FIRE OCCURS?
- It is mainly due to-Natural & Man-made
3 ELEMENTS REQUIRED FOR FOREST FIRE
OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY
- The reason for the sudden spurt in forest fires can very likely be traced to a 1981 governmental ban on the felling of green trees above 1,000 m elevation.
- With permission, impossible to obtain, the next best thing was to dry the trees up by foul means, especially for real estate developers, timber contractors, villagers.
- Land cleared can be sold in land transfer cases, which also suits builders.
SOLUTION
- Identification and mapping of all fire prone areas.
- Compilation and analysis of data-base on the damage due to forest fire. Installation of Forest Danger Rating Systems and Fire-Forecasting Systems. All preventive measures are to be taken before the beginning of the fire season.
- A ‘Crisis Management Group’ should be constituted at the state headquarters, district headquarters, and at block levels to monitor the situations during fire
- Public awareness should be created against ill effects of forest fires.
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