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Carbon emissions from forest fires GS:3 "EMPOWER IAS"

Carbon emissions from forest fires GS:3 "EMPOWER IAS"

In news:

  • The recent study published in Science of the Total Environment used remote sensing-based models to measure the primary productivity over an area and also looked at burn indices.

 

Parameters used in the study

  • The burn indices 
    • Burn indices help to demarcate the forest fire burn scars using satellite imagery.
    • The spectral differences between healthy vegetation and burnt forest areas can easily be identified and highlighted by remote sensing burn indices. 
    • This can be a promising tool for land resource managers and fire officials.
  • The normalized burn ratio
    • It is an effective burn index commonly used to identify burnt regions in large fire zones.
    • In normal conditions in a forest, healthy vegetation exhibits a very high reflectance in the near-infrared spectral region and considerably low reflectance in the shortwave infrared spectral region.
    • However, these conditions get dismantled and reversed if a fire occurs.

 

Findings of the study

  • Forest fire hotspots
    • According to the study, the States of northeast India, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand are the most fire prone in India.
  • Carbon emissions during forest fires
    • Previous studies using forecasting models and in-situ observations in western Himalaya had shown a sharp increase of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and ozone during high fire activity periods. 
    • The current study noted very high to high carbon emissions in the eastern Himalayan states, western desert region, and lower Himalayan region.
  • Occurrence of high fire intensity at the low altitude Himalayan hilly region
    • According to the study, this phenomenon may be due to the plant species (pine trees) in the area and proximity to villages. 
    • Also, villages make them more susceptible to anthropogenic activities like forest cover clearance, grazing, and so on.
  • Causes of increased episodes of forest fires
    • Studies have shown that the sharp increase in average and maximum air temperature, decline in precipitation, change in land use patterns have caused the increased episodes of forest fires in most of the Asian countries.

Forest fires in India:

  • During 2003–2017, a total of 5,20,861 active forest fire events were detected in India.
  • According to the report of the Forest Survey of India, over 54% of the forest cover in India is exposed to occasional fire.

 

Causes of forest fire

Natural Causes

  • Many forest fires start from natural causes such as lightning which set trees on fire
  • High atmospheric temperatures and dryness (low humidity) offer favourable circumstance for a fire to start. In dry season, friction leading to sparks by rolling stones in the mountainous areas may lead to forest fires
  • In bamboo areas, forest fires may occur by the rubbing together of clumps of dry bamboos.
  • Volcanic eruptions also lead to forest fires naturally
  • In the past twenty years, the fire events in India have strongly been linked with the presence of El Nino conditions affecting the monsoon movements.

 

Man-made causes:

  • More than 90% forest fires are caused by human beings, deliberately (for personal gains or rivalry) or merely due to negligence or just by accident. Forest fires sometimes originate due to accidental or unintentional reasons.
  • Graziers and gatherers of various forest products starting small fires to obtain good grazing grass as well as to facilitate gathering of minor forest produce like flowers of Madhuca indica and leaves of Diospyros melanoxylon
  • The centuries old practice of shifting cultivation (especially in the North-Eastern region of India and in parts of the States of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh).
  • The use of fires by villagers to ward off wild animals
  • For concealing the illicit felling – Smugglers and poachers many times start forest fires to hide the stumps of illicit felling. The poachers use forest fires for terrorizing wild animals and hunting too.
  • Fires started accidentally by careless visitors to forests who discard cigarette butts.
  • Burning farm residue- After a harvest, farmers set fire to their agricultural fields. Many times, when these fires are not put out completely, may spread to the adjoining forest areas.

 

Impact of forest fire

Fires are a major cause of forest degradation and have wide ranging adverse ecological, economic and social impacts, including:

  • loss of valuable timber resources
  • degradation of catchment areas
  • loss of biodiversity and extinction of plants and animals
  • loss of wildlife habitat and depletion of wildlife
  • loss of natural regeneration and reduction in forest cover
  • Global warming- By causing the release of greenhouse gases (GHG), forest fires contribute significantly to climate change. Warmer climate leads to forests becoming dryer and degraded, which increases their vulnerability to fire.
  • loss of carbon sink resource and increase in percentage of CO2 in atmosphere
  • change in the microclimate of the area with unhealthy living conditions
  • soil erosion affecting productivity of soils and production
  • ozone layer depletion
  • health problems leading to diseases
  • loss of livelihood for tribal people and the rural poor, as approximately 300 million people are directly dependent upon collection of non-timber forest products from forest areas for their livelihood.

Measures to curb Forest fires:

1) National Action Plan on Forest Fires

  • The MoEFCC has prepared a National Action Plan on Forest Fires in 2018 after several rounds of consultation with all states and UTs.
  • The objective of this plan is to minimize forest fires by informing, enabling and empowering forest fringe communities and incentivizing them to work in tandem with the State Forest Departments.
  • The plan also intends to substantially reduce the vulnerability of forests across diverse forest ecosystems in the country against fire hazards, enhance capabilities of forest personnel and institutions in fighting fires and swift recovery subsequent to fire incidents.

 

2) Forest Fire Prevention and Management scheme

  • The MoEFCC provides forest fire prevention and management measures under the Centrally Sponsored Forest Fire Prevention and Management (FPM) scheme.
  • The FPM is the only centrally funded program specifically dedicated to assist the states in dealing with forest fires.
  • The FPM replaced the Intensification of Forest Management Scheme (IFMS) in 2017. By revamping the IFMS, the FPM has increased the amount dedicated for forest fire work.
  • Funds allocated under the FPM are according to the 90:10 ratio of central to state funding in the Northeast and Western Himalayan regions and 60:40 ratio for all other states.
  • Nodal officers for forest fire prevention and control have been appointed in each state.

 

Mitigation Strategies:

Technology

  • FSI has begun the development of systems for early warning and fire danger rating, and these efforts should be continued.
  • Digitization of management boundaries by the state forest departments should be completed, so that the FSI can more accurately determine which fires to report and to whom.
  • Fire alert systems can also be improved by integrating ground-based detection with the satellite-based alert systems.

 

Community Engagement

  • Sensitization of communities should be done to ensure that fire is used responsibly in a way that promotes forest health, while seeking to avoid damaging and out-of-control fires.
  • Provision of training should extend beyond state-managed forests to community institutions in regions such as the Northeast, where communities are responsible for managing most of the forest estate.

 

Forest fire and NDMA guidelines

The action plan should incorporate the following suggestions:

  • The action plan should aim to strengthen forest fire prevention, preparedness and response mechanism across various levels within the forest department.
  • It should be developed after having an interactive consultation process with a variety of mechanism across various levels within the forest department.
  • A framework to strengthen skills and increase capacities to effectively address the menace of forest fires has to be provided to the forest department
  • Forest personnel’s services needs to be upgraded to manage forest fire and reduce the risks.
  • Better coordination between key stakeholders at different levels, especially at the local levels has to be ensured.
  • High professionalism on forest fire management has to be promoted among the forest departments.
  • Partnerships based on complementarities and mutual comparative advantages with other stake holders like NGOs and Community based organizations (CBOs)