Massive Forest Fire In Uttarakhand – Free PDF Download

• 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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