33 Forest Fire: Threatened the region’s biodiversity and Environment

General Introduction: Forest Fire

• The most common danger in the forest is fire. Forest fires are as old as forests.
• They pose a threat not only to forest resources but to the entire governance system and have seriously threatened the region’s biodiversity, the environment, and the environment.
• In summer, when it is not raining for months, the wood is filled with dry, fragrant, and raw leaves, which can explode into a burning flame with the least polish.
• The forests of the Himalayas, especially the Garhwal Himalayas, have been burning relentlessly during recent summers, causing significant damage to vegetation in the region.
• Forest fires create imbalances in nature and threaten biodiversity by reducing the richness of animals and plants.
• Effective fire prevention methods are not effective, and there is a need to create awareness among the people, especially in and around the area.

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FOREST FIRE: Causes

Forest fires occur for both natural and anthropogenic reasons.

• Man-made causes– When open flames, cigarettes, bidis, electric sparks, or an ignition source come in contact with flammable materials, it will cause a fire.

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• Natural causes– There are Many wildfires are caused by natural causes, such as lightning strikes and burning trees. However, such rain extinguished the fire without much damage. Air temperature and dryness (low humidity) ensure good combustion conditions.

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Environmental factors are mostly related to weather conditions, such as temperature, wind speed and direction, soil moisture, and environmental and drought times. Other natural causes are sparks caused by bamboo swaying due to high wind speeds and rolling rocks that produce sparks, which cause fires to burn excessive leaf litter on the forest floor. Human-related causes are the result of human activities and forest management practices. These may be intentional or unintentional.

• Rangers and collectors of various forest products start small fires to obtain good grazing grass and promote the development of secondary forest products such as Madhuca Indica flowers and Diospyros melanoxylon leaves to collect.

• Hundreds of years of rotation farming (especially in northeastern India and parts of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh).

• Villagers use fire to extinguish wild animals.

• People living near the forest deliberately lit a fire for entertainment.

• Careless forest tourists inadvertently caused a fire, and they discarded their cigarette butts.

• The causes of forest fires are rapidly increasing. The increase in population and livestock numbers has exacerbated this problem.

• People often enter the forest to graze cattle and collect firewood, wood, and other wood.

• It is estimated that 90% of forest fires in India are man-made.

Forest Fire: Classification

Classified into three categories;

• Regulated Natural forest fires.
• The heat from the fire debris generated by a forest biome’s summer negligence (human carelessness).
• Forest fires purposely due to local inhabitants.

Forest Fire: Type

Crown Fire:-

The second type is a forest fire, a Crown fire in which the crown of trees and shrubs is often fixed by surface fires. In a crowned forest, a crown fire is especially dangerous because the burning material ignites the burning material. In mountain op strips, if the fire starts downwards, the hot air blowing along an ope strip spreads as fast as it spreads to the meadow. If the fire starts to rise, it is unlikely to spread to the bottom.

Surface Fire:-

The surface-specific forest fire burning fire spread over the soil surface litter (senescent leaves and twigs and dry herbs etc.) deep in the forest floor by the flames.

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FOREST FIRE: Influence

Fires are a major cause of forest degradation and have a wide range of negative environmental, economic and social impacts, including these.

• Deficit of important timber resources

• Degradation of catchment areas

• Deficit of biodiversity and extinction of plants and animals

• Deficit of wildlife habitat and deficiency of wildlife

• Deficit of natural regeneration and depletion of forests

• Global Warming

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• Damage of carbon sinks and increased CO2 in the atmosphere

• Change microclimate region with living conditions that are not healthy

• Soil erosion that affects the productivity and production of weak

• Depletion of the ozone

• Health problems that caused the disease

• Deficit of livelihood of the people tribes and villages are poor because about 300 million people depend directly with collection product base not wood from forest areas for survival.

Forest Fire: Management

The number of forest fires in the country is increasing, and more and more territories are illuminated every year. The main reason for this failure is a piecewise approach to the problem. The country lacks both national focus and technical resources to support the National Forest Management Program. Essential elements of forest fire management are missing, such as strategic fire centers, coordination between ministries, funding, human resource development, fire research, fire management, and extension programs.

Given the seriousness of the problem, there is a need to significantly improve the forest fire management strategy in the country. The Government of India’s Ministry of Environment has prepared a National Wildlife Master Plan. This plan proposes to implement a systematic integrated fire management program that includes the following components:

• Preventing Man-Made Fires Through Education and Environmental Change. This will include agriculture, engineering, human participation, education, and coercion. It is recommended that more attention be paid to people’s participation through the joint management of forest fires for fire prevention.
• Direct fire detection with a well-coordinated network of observation points, effective ground monitoring, and communication networks. Remote sensing technology(The Basic Concept of Remote Sensing) should focus on fire detection. To successfully control and manage fires, the National Fire Risk Classification System (NFDRS) and Fire Forecast System must be developed in the country.

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• Rapid initial attack action.
• Actions follow strongly.
• Introduce forest fuel modification systems at strategic points.
• Firefighting resources.

Each of the above components plays an important role in the performance of any fire extinguisher. Special attention should be paid to research, publication, and development.

Forest Fire: Protection

The main purpose of this system is to control wildfires and strengthen the protection of forests in Tamil Nadu. Work has been done, such as clearing the line of fire, participating in joint forest management commissions, establishing water bodies, purchasing vehicles և communication equipment, purchasing firefighting tools, etc.

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