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E-PG PATHSHALA IEARTH SCIENCE

DISASTER MANAGEMENT Content Writers Template

1. Details of Module and its Structure Module details

Subject Name Earth science Paper Name Forest Fire

Module Name/Title India and Disaster Management

Module Id ES16-615

Pre-requisites Before going into the subject one has to appreciate the strength of knowledge available among students about forest fire. The teacher attempts to draw details about the background of forest and associated hazards particularly in India. He will attempt to make students to realize the background of natural forest fire and anthropogenic. He will also get the answers from the students about the quantum, difference in the status of fire impact and likely status of forest fire.

Objectives The objectives of module can be viewed as follows

1. To emphasize the need to understand the contribution of forests to the well-being of the human-kind.

2. To understand the mode of subjugation of the forest to different types of exposures.

3. To analyze the nature of source of fire to the forest.

4. To understand the status of Indian forest particularly in the aspect of conservation.

5. The different demarcation of government responsibility in safeguarding the forest and their efforts in popularizing statutory restrictions.

Keywords Forest, Wildfire, Veld Fire, Statuary prevention, Natural Source anthropogenic, deciduous, coniferous, crown fire.

2. Structure of the module-as Outline: Table of content only ( topics covered with their sub-topics)

1.0 Introduction

2.0 History

3.0 Forest Fire

3.1 Surface Fire 3.2 Crown Fire 3.3 Ground Fire

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2 3.4 Underground Fire 3.5 Wild Fire

3.6 VELD Fire 3.7 Man-Made Fire 3.8 Natural Fire

4.0 Causes of the Forest Fire

5.0 Damages Out of Forest Fire

6.0 Vulnerability

7.0 Preparedness and Mitigation Measures 7.1 Precautions

8.0 Impacts of Forest Fire

8.1 Social Impacts of Fires 8.2Economic Impacts 8.3 Impact on Biodiversity 8.4 Impacts on Catchment

9.0 Fire prevention and control measure

9.1 Forest fire prevention and control strategy 9.2 Forest Fire Prevention in India

9.3 Issue of Fire safety guidelines-fire prevention wing 9.4 Issue of No Objection Certificate

10.0 Estimation of Losses from Forest Fires

11.0 Initiatives

11.1 National Forest Policy, 1988

11.2 Policy of forest fire (Rehabilitation and Response)

12.0 Future Plan

12.1 National Plan for Forest Fire Management 12.2 Research Issues

13.0 Conclusion

3. Development Team

Role Name Affiliation

National co-ordination

Subject co-ordination Prof. A.Balasubramanian Prof.K. N.PrakashNarasimha

Centre for advance studies a Dept of Earth Science

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Prof. B. Suresh Kumar Mysoore-6

Paper co-ordinator Prof.Dr.G.VictoRajamanickam Center for Disaster management, PRIST University,

Vallam,Thanjavur-613403 Content Writer/Author

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Prof.G.VictorRajamanickam Center for Disaster management,

PRIST University,

Vallam,Thanjavur-613403 Content Reviewer (CR) Prof. Ashutosh Das Centre for Environmental Engg,

PRIST University,

Vallam,Thanjavur-613 403 Language Editor (LE)

4. E-text (as table of contents)

1.0 Introduction

Both fire and forest are found to have been evolved simultaneously along with man from the time immemorial. Fire means rapid. Self-sustaining oxidation processes are accompanied by the evolution of heat and light in varying strength. Basically, fire is made up of three elements namely fuel, heat and oxidizer. There are number of fire incidences. After analyzing the source, they are brought under two major heads such as natural and man- made. There are natural fires always associated with disasters like earthquake and volcanic eruption and the man- made ones are introduced by the errors of the man and machine, in addition to their negligence leading to fire accidents probably out of short circuit and mal- functioning of small industries. Fire hazards in the forest and work place are originated out of man- made chemicals, open flame like welding, heat producing devices like hot plates, use and disposal of chemicals like hazards waste handling and electrical equipments. Above all, the nuclear utilization for both good and bad do instigate the fire hazards. Fire can be caused by innumerable means starting from cooking to smoking, thatched roofs to congested access. The forest is moving along with the fire like hand- in-gloves.

2.0 History

In India, a maximum of 450 cases of forest fire was reported in 1995. In Himachal alone in the past, the forests especially in the hill stations where one can pass through with very difficult due to the presence of dense trees and climbers have been burnt for creating residential plots as living space and irrigable lands for the human occupation. Further, in the early days the treasures of forest have been converted as wooden furniture and weapons. The raw material supply from the forest was freely made available to fulfill the comforts of the human beings. The limited loss of forest has been supported for the regeneration of the desired species of tree and grass for cattle grazing. Such loss was legalized under the past forest management. However much, man attempts to control fire sometimes major hazards takes place like the one in national park in -U.S and Indonesia in 1997. In

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1999 there was an extension of summer so the forest in K umaun division of Uttaranchal and Himachal states of India undergone series of forest fire but many of them are man-made.

3.0 Forest Fire

It is rather very difficult to classify the type of fire either by origin or the loss created or the regional or the species or triggering mechanism or the behavior of the fire, the incidents are found to vary group to group. However, on the basis of the organic matter consumption, they are divided as shown below:

3.1 Surface Fire

It is the most common forest fire that burns consuming the undergrowth and dead material spread on the surface in the forest. It helps the forest to obtain better growth and regenerative power. It grows in size. This fire not only burns ground flora but also results to engulf the undergrowth and middle story of the forest. It spreads by flaming combustion thro ugh at or near the surface grass, dead and down limbs, forest needle and leaf litter cleaning.

A forest fire may burn primarily as a surface fire, spreading along the ground as the surface litter (senescent leaves and twigs and dry grasses, etc) on the forest floor and is engulfed by the spreading flames.

3.2 Crown Fire

The other type of forest fire is a crown fire in which the crown of trees and shrubs burn, often sustained by a surface fire. A crown fire is particularly very dangerous in a coniferous forest because resinous material given off burning logs burn furiously. On hill slopes, if the fire starts downhill, it spreads up fast as heated air adjacent to a slope tends to flow up the slope spreading flames along with it. If the fire starts uphill, there is less likelihood of it spreading downwards. Thus, a surface fire burns the surface litter, other loose debris on the forest floor and small vegetation. It is the most commonly seen one in timber stand of all species. It may be a mild, low energy fire in sparse grass and pine needle litter, or it may be very hot and fast moving fire where slash, flammable under story shrubs, or other abundant fuel prevails. A surface fire as it spreads and continues may burn up to the taller vegetation and tree crowns.

3.3 Ground Fire

There is no clear distinction between underground and ground fires .The smoldering for some time underground fire changes into ground fires. This fire burns root and other materials on or beneath the surface i.e. burns the herbaceous growth on forest floor together with the layer of organic matter in various stages of decay. They are more damages on surface fires they can destroy vegetation

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completely .These fires are fires in the subsurface organic fuels, such as duff layers under forest stands. Arctic tundra or taiga and organic soils of swamps or bogs. Ground fires burn underneath the surface by smoldering combustion and are most often ignited by surface fires. Thus a ground fire consumes the organic material beneath the surface ground litter of the forest floor. In many forest types particularly in northern latitudes, at higher elevations, and in bog areas in all locations, a mantle of organic material accumulates on top of the mineral soils. A true ground fire spreads by slowly smoldering edge with no flame and little smoke. These fires are often hard to detect and the least spectacular and slowest moving. Fighting such fires is very difficult and tedious job.

3.4 Unde rground Fire

The fire of low intensity consuming the organic matter beneath and surface litter of forest floor is separated as underground fire. In Himalayas such thick mantle of ash with organic matter can be seen in such incidents of burst of fire. Depending upon the nature of soil in which this forest got exposed to fire, the burnt area may stay permanently at the top of the mineral soil and sometimes they may leave the impression of impact to few meters below the surface. The fire in this group spreads slowly and most of the cases in undetectable way. They may continue to spread for months together destroying the vegetation cover of the soil. It is also called as muck fire and in some places ground fire. The other terminology for this type of fire is Muck fires while in some countries; it is referred to as ground fires. A typical example of such underground fire of perennial nature is going on in Jharia the coal field of Bihar.

3.5 Wild Fire

The fire is taking place in the forest whether it is initiated by man for his comforts or by natural agents for no reasons. Such processes once taken place, they remain uncontrollable inflicting enormous material loss. The wild fire is defined as ‘A wild fire known as a forest fire, vegetation fire, grass fire and brush fire’. Wild fire is a synonym for Greek fire, a Nepalm like substance uses as naval weapon in Europe. It is expressed by mistake as spreads like wild fire. Any forest in any geographical location may have to be succumbed to the hazard of forest fire. The major threat out of forest fire is not the loss of forest wealth but the loss of entire fauna and flora leading to degradation of ecology and environment. Today India is facing typical bursts of forest fire, regularly at Garhwal Himalayas, Uttaranchal and other such regions.

The wild fires are categorized according to the sites observed where they are burning like surface fire spreading along the ground. The crown fires are those burning and jumping tree to tree with the glow and move over the branches.(Trollope et al 1919). The temperature radiating around fire can be used to ategori e the strength of the fire. The fire an be alled ool or hot in the visibility of o urren e. When the fire takes pla e in the presen e of moisture around the grass.

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The temperature intensity moves more or less 2000kw mˉ1 of energy is released ) such fire is tipped as cool fire where as in the dry summer season if the fire lits in the same place it can radiate a heat energy up to the fire of 8000kw m ˉ1 Williams et al 1998. The hot fires are often spreads fastly on a windy day. That too in summer it will be one of the destructive and very harmful. In such a way it wipes out completely the soil cover unlike the cool fires which leave a Massive dump burnt and unburnt patches.

3.6 Veld Fire

The main causes of veld fires are anthropogenic. The impacts of fires are multifaceted and are a threat to the bio-physical, social and economic environment because of their trail of destruction and they directly impact all sectors of the economy. Impacts range from loss of livelihoods and income, psychosocial impacts associated with fatalities and family bereavement, loss of biodiversity and disturbance of the hydrological balance. It is very difficult to prevent veld fires as it also have positive aspects. In view of this, fire management should move a way from firefighting to management practices such as early burning that reduces the negative impact, and enhance the positive effects of veld fires.

Veld fires are normally classified according to where they are burning e.g., surface fires which burn along the ground and crown fires which burn the upper parts of trees (Trollope et al.

1990; WWF 2001). The temperature of burning or intensity can also be used for further classifying fires, as fires can be classified as either cool or hot. Intensity is a mea sure of the release of heat energy per unit time, per unit length of fire front. Cool fires usually occur early in the dry season (late April to June) when there is still moisture in the grass and leaves, and are typically of low intensity (~2000 kW m-1of energy is released), while late dry season fires (August to September) occur when the grass and trees are very dry, and heat energy of up to 8000 k Wm-1 is released, (Williams et al. 1998). Trollope &Tainton (1986) classified cool fires as fires with and intensity of <1000 kJ s -1 m-1, while hot fires have intensity >2001 J s -1 m-1. Hot fires are often made hotter and more destructive by the windy conditions in August, September and October and they are a combination of surface and crown fires (WWF 2001). Hot fires which occur during the driest part of the year are often very destructive; they completely wipe out all ground cover, unlike the cool fires which leave a mosaic of burnt and unburnt patches (van Wilgen 2009).

Keywords: Veld fires; seasonally dry savannas; Biodiversity; Environment; Fire management.

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7 3.7 Man-Made Fire

Fig.1. Fig.2

KOZHIKODE: The preliminary inquiry by the state forest department into the massive fire which ravaged around 300 hectares of prime forests in Wayanad on Sunday has found that the fire was man-made( Fig.1 and 2), raising suspicion it could be a deliberate act of sabotage.

The report was submitted by APCCF (Vigilance) C S Yalakki to state forest minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan on Monday, based on details gathered from respective divisional forest officers. According to it the 300 hectares is spread across the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) and north Wayanad forest division(Fig.5). The damage was highest at the Begur range under the north Wayanad forest division with 200 acres of land, mostly teak plantations, getting burnt. In the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, the fire ravaged 80 hectares in Tholpetty range and 10 hectares each in Muthanga and Sultan Bathery ranges.

Thiruvanchoor said that he has ordered a detailed probe into the incident. "If we find any foul play, we will register a case," he said. The fire, which was noticed in the early morning on Sunday, became uncontrollable due to the presence of large quantity of flowered, dead and dried bamboo in the area, coupled with heavy winds. Forest officials said the fact that the fires erupted at around 15 locations simultaneously raised suspicions that it could be the result of a deliberate act.

"Sabotage could be a possibility as there have been attempts by vested interests in the district to inflame people's sentiments over forest-related issues like night time ban on traffic through NH 212.

Forests offices and staff have repeatedly come under attack and there were open threats that the forests would be burnt down," said a senior forest official. He added that the fire started off in forests near human habitations.

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The incident also exposed the unpreparedness of the department in dealing with forest fires.

Forest officials were forced to battle the inferno by setting off counter fires and physically beating out the fires with long leafy branches in many areas. "The efforts to use counter fire to contain the blaze failed due to heavy winds. Though fire engines were deployed, they were of limited use due to lack of road accessibility in interior forests. Finally, we managed to contain the fire by Sunday evening by using the forests roads as a fire belt," said North Wayanad DFO AShanavas.

3.8 Natural Fire

Fig.3 Fig.4

4.0 Causes of the Forest Fire

Forest fire is generally being triggered during summer due to either high heat or windor sparks produced out of the abrasion taken place with the branches of those trees. This type of hazard is grouped under 3 broad heads.

1. Natural or controlled forest fires

2. Forest fire originated out of the heat from the litter or other biomes initiated by the carelessness of the intruders of the forest.

3. Forest fires are normally allowed to burn for making path for the cattle grazers (Fig.1) the cultivators (Fig.2) of Kanja, wood cutters and shepherds. In many places particularly in the equator regions and the grass terrain like Savanna, where thunder storms are likely to occur, the natural fires(Fig.3 and 4) are taking place due to lightning as there is simultaneous rain fall, the damage is limited. In the forest during summer human negligence by throwing away of cigarette buds, a spark from the picnickers open hearth in a desiccated forest is enough to lit a devastative fire damages.

Earlier studies on the causes of forest fire suggest two kinds of production of fire. They are of deliberate and the anthropogenic types (W.W.F 2001). Deliberate fires are taken as the fires practiced for hunting. Similarly back burning another type of firing in the forest is applied to reduce the fuel load. The negative impact of wild fires, creation of fire breaks, arson and smoking

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out bees during harvesting of wild honey. Other than the above mentioned categories deliberate causes include cooking, waste dumps, carelessness such as throwing out cigarette bits, religious and traditional practice of Annual burns to improve grazing (MUDEKWE 2007). Fires to flesh out game, kindling fires to please the rain guards, leaving camp fires un-extinguished (JUDGE 1975) are observed as different categories. Accidental fires may occur from the locomotives which are cutting across the forest and lightning during rain (BOND ET AL 2003) or spontaneous compassion during very hot dry summers.

In a mountainous region the farmers are carrying out plantations themselves by preparing small land holdings by means of mechanical methods leading to step cultivation. Once, the land is placed under fire to remove the invasive species and moribund grasses that are unpalatable to life stock and game to give way to flesh growth. As the increase of population pushing the men to clear more and more forest for their lively hood, it is unavoidable to control t he aggressions of the forest until alternative arrangements are provided for their energy requirement and other day today needs. Occupation of land by means of arson is reflecting the degradation of forest. Indiscriminate throwing the bit cigarette stub and disposal of hot ash after cooking has also been a factor to get fire. The crew of long distance trucks is generally cooking on the road side for their own. And other road nuisance clear of the ash leads to spread fire. In countries like Zimbabwe many of the fires are found to occur along the road side and foot path due to the forest exploiters whereas in places like Indonesia man-made causes of the fire chiefly go along the land clearance for cultivation and housing, and also for using the wood for weapons and other tools from the surrounding forest in land derived resources extraction etc.( Apple Gate et al 2001).

5.0 Damages out of Forest Fire

Like any other country and this planet here to the forest is subjected to disaster by means of both natural and man – made source fire. And forest fire consume an average 33% of the area if reflects vary and verse ecological, economic and social inputs. The impact of the forest fire and the damages occurring in a year is found to be more than the world average. Forest fire cause wide ranging adverse ecological, economic and social impacts. In short it can be brought out in the following aspects:

1.Loss of valuable timber resources and depletion of carbon sinks.

2.Degradation of water catchment areas resulting in loss of water.

3.Loss of biodiversity and extinction of plants and animals.

4.Loss of wild life habitat and depletion of wild life.

5.Loss of natural regeneration and reduction in forest cover and production.

6.Global warming resulting in rising temperature.

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7.Loss of carbon sinks resource and increase in percentage of CO₂ in the atmosphere.

8.Change in micro climate of the area making it unhealthy living conditions.

9.Soil erosion affecting productivity of soils production.

10.Ozone layer depletion.

11. Health problems leading to diseases.

Depending upon season, vegetation type, forest intensity, direction of the wind, topography and lack of efforts in controlling the fire, the burnt area may vary from few hectares to large several thousands of hectares. Historically the year 1916 to 1930 met with great incidents of forest fire and large amount of loss to forest resources. Recently Kunihar division of Himachal Pradesh statistically accounted forest fire loss to around 350 hectares per year. According to the evo lution of Indian space application centre [ISRO]. 21.5% of the total forest area 211500 hectares [faced the large loss of forest fire [Table showing the incidents of forest fire take place in Uttaranchal].

Table:Number of incidences of Forest fire in different years occurred in Uttaranchal Sl.No Year Number of Instance (Fire) Ground Fire (GF)/

Crown Fire (CF)

1 1987-88 5473 G.F

2 1988-89 4711 G.F

3 1989-90 4311 G.F

4 1990-91 4325 G.F

5 1991-92 6316 G.F

6 1992-93 2345 G.F

7 1993-94 1004 G.F

8 1994-95 - -

9 1995-96 2,737 G.F

6.0 Vulnerability

Forest fire can be either natural or controlled and caused by heat generated in the litter or other biomes particularly in summer due to negligence of the people who are exploiting the forest wealth. The most vulnerable stretch in the world is the Indian Himalaya. In that compared to the western forest, Eastern Himalayas are found to be highly vulnerable because of high rain density and the presence of expansion of pine tree (chir) forest. The large rate of vulnerability due to forest fire is provided in hectares.

Table 1: Vulnerable Himalayan States of India towards Forest Fire

S.No State Total Land Area Forest area Recorded Total cropped area (ha)

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(ha*) ha (%)

1. Manipur 2211000 602000 (27.23) 186000

2. Arunachal Pradesh 8374300 5154000 (61.55) 167369

Most affected area in the western and central Himalayas are the one, in 1999 destroying nearly 80,000 hectares. Subsequently, a loss of 375,000 hectares is of Uttaranchal. The losses in other forests of India are provided in [Table 3]. A glance of [Table 3] highlights the attack of forest fire to 53.1% of forest area. The range varies from the lowest 6.8% of upper subansiri in Arunachal Pradesh to a maximum of 97% in Dadra and Nagarhaveli. When t he nature of the fire is looked upon 8.92% of the fire report is reported to be an area of frequent occurrence while 44.25%

occasionally.

7.0 Preparedness and Mitigation Measures

Forest fires are usually seasonal. They usually start in the dry season a nd can be prevented by adequate precautions. Successive Five Year Plans have provided funds for forests fighting. During the British period, fire was prevented in the summer through removal of forest litter all along the forest boundary. This was called "Forest Fire Line" This line used to prevent fire breaking into the forest from one compartment to another. The collected litter was burnt in isolation. Generally, the fire spreads only if there is continuous supply of fuel (Dry vegetation) along its path. The best way to control a forest fire is therefore, to prevent it from spreading, which can be done by creating fire-breaks in the shape of small clearings of ditches in the forests.

7.1 Precautions

The followings are the important precautions against fire:

1. To keep the source of fire or source of ignition separated from Combustible and inflammable material.

2. To keep the source of fire under watch and control.

3. Not allow combustible or inflammable material to pile up unnecessarily and to stock the same as per procedure recommended for safe storage of such combustible or inflammable material.

4. To adopt safe practices in areas near forests viz. factories, coalmines, oil stores, chemical plants and even in household kitchens.

5. To incorporate fire reducing and firefighting techniques and equipment while planning a building or coal mining operation.

6. In case of forest fires, the volunteer teams are essential not only for firefighting but also to keep watch on the start of forest and sound an alert.

7. To arrange firefighting drills frequently.

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12 8.0 Impacts of Forest Fire

Fire out breaks directly impinge the increased loss of agricultural produce leading to the reduction of food availability for learning things, reduction in the growth rate of vegetation and loss of equipments. The farmers generally lose their stored products and instruments, living crops.

In short the overall impact is the food insecurity among households. Many regions if it is in the grazing fields the loss of life stock has lead the supply of poor beef quality low selling prices of life stock, low milk production, etc.

Figure 5: Wayanad Forest, Kerala, India.

8.1 Social Impacts of Fires

Acute impacts such as trauma are common among victims to would have secured short term loans. Many hut dwellers lose their shelter. Some may have experienced with property loss.

Due to loss of hurts the family faces a condition of living in the open space without cooking facilities and proper water such condition brings more and more stressful members in the society.

Exposure to forest fires impacts psychosocial wellbeing in a variety of ways (Evans

&Kantrowitz 2002; Fowler 2003) ranging from temporary frustration, to temporary or permanent reduction of health – related quality of life (HRQL), to post – traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) feeling jumpy, avoiding reminders of the fire, nightmares, dreams, and disturbing memories (Maida 1989). However, there are no detailed studies that have evaluated both the social and psychosocial impacts of veld fires on people in the affected areas of Zimbabwe and these calls for further research.

8.2 Economic Impacts

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So for systematic studies on wild fires has been produced in the tropical savanna. The eco system related to food and services connected waste assimilation represe nt benefits human population derived from e o system functions. (Costanzaetal 1997). Wild fires bring mercilessly heavy destruction it is rather difficult to quantity in maritary terms because they involve ecological processes and services. Costanza et.al 1997 divided the ecosystem into 17 types such as gas regulation,climate regulation,holination,biological control and nutrients cycling. The estimate value for the ecosystem services for the tropical biome (1,900*10⁶ ha globally) was estimated to be $ 2,007 ha yrˉ1. However, very few studies have evaluated the impa ts of fires on e osystem services in Zimbabwe, e.g. Nkomo&Sassi (2009). In the case of Zimbabwe the statics reveal that in 2011 within 4 months 257 forest fires were reported and destroyed 9586 ha of timber. The destruction of timber plantations has dire consequences on the economic status of the province.

8.3 Impact on Biodive rsity

Forest fires have many implications for biological diversity as they affect both apparent diversity (observed directly) and hidden diversity (observed by manipulation of the propagule pool in the soil). At the regional and local level, fires lead to change in biomass stocks, and alter plant and animal spe ies’ fun tioning.

One of the most important ecological effects of burning is the increased probability of further burning in subsequent years as dead trees topple to the ground, opening up the forest to drying by sunlight, and building up the fuel load with an increase in fire – prone species (van Wilgen 2009). The consequence of repeated burns is detrimental because it causes impoverishment of biodiversity and the extinction of some tree species and the replacement of vast areas of forest with grasslands (WWF 2001). Beringer et al. (2007) reported net biome production o f -2.0 tonnes arbon haˉ¹ yearˉ¹ in fire prone savannas of Northern Australia. In tropi al forests, a single fire an reduce woody plant richness by a third to two – thirds depending on fire severity and can have negative impacts on a diverse array of faunal components (Cochrane 2003).

Fire typically results in some mortality of individual seeds, stems and plants. Fire can have devastating impacts on forest vertebrates and invertebrates by not only killing them, but also leading to long-term indirect effects such as stress and loss of habitat, territories, shelter and food (WWF 2001). Fires result in the loss of key organisms in forest ecosystem, fruit – eating birds, pollinators, decomposers, amphibians and reptiles resulting in overall decline in these spe cies.

The impacts of fires are not always negative as fires can also improve the growth of green grass which provides grazing for animals in the dry season, removal of old and normally less palatable material, the control and reduction of brush encroachment, the stimulation of germination of some useful species of grass, and trees and also the limitation of animal parasites (e.g., ticks),

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(WWF 2002;Nkomo&Sassi 2009). Surviving seeds may be stimulated to germinate after fire (Sabiiti&Wein 1987).

8.4 Impacts on Catchment

In South Africa, Australia, Zimbabwe (Cornish and Vertessy 2001) have projected the fire occurrence in the form serve bush fires. Such fire takes place in many other zone on catchment and Hydrological process. Such fires introduced run of losses and subsequently the loss of vegetation cover. Studies have shown in the areas of Hydrological behavior is reflecting a significant low infiltration and enhancement the run off (Cornish and Vertessy 2001). Fires further induce water repellency ( Doerr et al 2000) and it brings change of river course post fire has influenced the ground water system (Fig.6) to obtain the dominant sandy soil with high inflation and saturated Hydrolic conductivity enabling reduction in evapotranspiration. Above all the fire has large effect on water quality in such a way the post fire inflicts more nutrition content ( Nitrates and Phosphates) Impact on air quality in view of a common burning carbon smoke moves up producing green house gasses. This in turn brings climate change ( Scholes and Andreae 2000). Such burning introduces the hara teristi loss to ‘N and C ’.

In Zimbabwe N₂O-N losses from burning were estimated to be 2.36 Gg yrˉ1 Chenje et al .1998). Scholes &Andreae (2000) estimated annual emissions of 6.7 Gg for N₂O, 7.2 Tg for CO₂, 0.008 Tg for methane (CH₄), 0.265 Tg for carbon monoxide (CO) and 0.019 Tg for NOX from burning in Zimbabwe. The work by Chenje et al.(1998) and Scholes &Andreae (2000) suggest that burnig is the single largest contributor to atmospheric N₂O and CO₂ during the dry season in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa.( N₂O_N Southern Africa ) wild fire may affect the public wealth in view of its density and many other gases.( Evans and Kantrowitz 2002). Air pollution caused suc h fire often accompany with cognitive deficiencies in behavior disorders.

Figure 6. A model showing the impacts of fire on catchment and hydrological processes. Redrawn and modified with permission from Smith et al. (2011).

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15 8.0 Fire prevention and control measure

In India around 373 million ha is estimated to have been affected by fire keeping this as base the loss due to fire is pointed to 440 million cores of rupees. This amount excludes the loss of due to bio-diversity, nutrient, soil moisture and other intangible benefits. According to UNDP report of 1987 the forest fire loss is by modern controlled methods to the fire of 280 crores.

9.1 Forest fire prevention and control strategy

India is possessed with 328.7 million ha but the forest cover occupies only 76.5 million ha. In other words 23.4 % of the continental cover of India remains to be the forest. Indian forest survey declares the forest area presently existing is only of 19.27 % at the year 1997. Within the total forest area 38 million ha are under the category of dense forest. In the world India is known for its herbal drugs through the application of herbal products through Indian traditional system of medicine. Indian is bestowed with nearly 45,000 specious of flora and fauna. It is 12% of the global plant wealth. The timber stock alone in the co untry is assessed to be of 4,740 million m3.

The total vegetation in the country has to meet the requirement of 1,000 million people and 450 million attle. As shel the ountry has to meet the needs16% of the world’s population from 1% of world forest resource. When the above statistics is looked upon the tremendous pressure placed on the forest of the country. In other words there is a large quantum of poor depend upon this forest for their subsistence needs. The increase in population of both human kinds and cattle directs enormous pressure by means of enhanced need of fuel wood, fodder, timber and other agricultural and pastoral needs.

9.2 Forest Fire Prevention in India

The issues relating to policy planning and finance is the primary responsibilit y of the Government of India. The field administration of the forest is the responsibility of the various governments.

The fire prevention and control measures are, therefore, carried out by the state forest departments. Each State and Union Territory has its own separate forest department.

Inspector General of Forests & Special Secretary is assisted by additional Inspector General of Forest and Deputy Inspector Generals. Forest Fire prevention is looked after by the Forest Protection Division in the Ministry, which is headed by a Deputy Inspector General of Forests.

The Ministry is implementing a plan s heme “Modern Forest Fire Control Methods” in India under which the state governments are provided financial assistance for fire prevention and control.

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A UNDP project was implemented during 1985 to 1990 in the country to address the problem of resource damage from uncontrolled forest fires. The project primarily focused on involving a systematic approach to deal with forest fire damages through tapping of the knowledge gained by some developed countries in preventing, detecting and suppressing forest fires, and its transfer to India.

The project yielded excellent results both from the angle of technical suitability and economic efficiency. It clearly demonstrated that the fire incidents can be reduced drastically as in some cases the incidents were reduced by 90% in selected areas.

Based on the success of this project, the Government of India, Ministry of Environment &

Forest initiated a s heme entitled “Modern Forest Fire Control Methods” sin e 1992-93. The scheme was launched during the 8th Plan period in 11 states where the major forest fires occur.

The project covered 60% of the forest areas of the country. Under the sche me, the Government provide financial assistance to state forest departments for procurement of hand tools, fire resistant clothes and fire fighting equipments, wireless sets, construction of fire watch towers, fire finders, creation of fire lines and for research, training and publicity on fire fighting. Under the Central Government an air operation wing was maintained.

The JFM programme is being implemented in 22 states through 35,000 village forest protection committees over an area of 7 million ha. It is proposed to invoke the people’s interest and enlist their support for fire prevention and firefighting operations. The Government is considering setting up of a National Institute of Forest Fire Management with satellite centers in different parts of India to bring the latest forest fire fighting technologies to India through proper research, training of personnel and technology transfer on a long-term basis. Notwithstanding the existing efforts, it is still felt that there is an acute shortage of resources for forest fire prevention, detection, and control and also for research, training and equipments.

9.3 Issue of Fire safety guidelines-fire prevention wing

The Delhi Fire Service issues fire safety guidelines to the various agencies for which the cases are to be referred to Chief fire Officer, Delhi Fire Service through the building authorities concerned or licensing authorities in line with the bldg. by laws/relevant code of practices.

In case of high-rise buildings i.e 15 meter or more in height a questionnaire has to be tilled &

submitted by the architect along with the plans. In order to avoid inconvenience all the information required in the questionnaire should be properly indicated. The fire safety guidelines should ensure that the information is correctly provided. The public is also advised to submit 3 sets of plans along with the duly filled in questionnaire and the building model. The fire

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prevention wing is headed by a Deputy Chief Fire Officer and assisted by a Divisional Officer and Station Officers.

9.4 Issue of No Objection Certificate

Once the guidelines have been issued by the fire department the application for obtaining no objection certificate may be submitted to the Chief Fire Officer by the builder/owner of the premises.

The owners/builders are further advised to ensure the compliance of all the fire safety guidelines before the approach the Chief Fire Officer for No Objection certificate.

No inspection fee is levied by the fire service for such inspection or issue of NOCs. In case of any difficulty the matter should be reported to the Dy. Chief Fire Officer or the Chief Fire Officer.

The Chief Fire Officer or Dy. Chief Fire Officer may also be contacted in case there is a delay in carrying out the inspection or issue of fire safety guidelines, or issue of NOC after the inspection has been carried out etc.

Major Forest Fire Disasters in India during the Past Few Years

The normal fire season in India is from the month of February to mid June. India witnessed the most severe forest fires in the recent time during the summer of 1995 in the hills of Uttar Pradesh

& Himachal Pradesh. The fires were very severe and attracted the attention of whole nation. An area of 677,700 ha was affected by fires. The quantifiable timber loss was around Rs. 17.50 crores (US$ 43 million; Rs. 1 crore = 10 million rupees). The loss to timber increment, loss of soil fertility, soil erosion, loss to bio-diversity were not calculated by the Committee appointed by the Government to enquire into the causes of fires, as these losses are immeasurable but very significant from the point of view of both economy as well as ecology. The fires in the hills resulted in smoke in the area for quite few a days. The smoke haze, however, vanished after the onset of rains. These fires caused changes in the micro-climate of the area in the form of soil moisture balance and increased evaporation. Lack of adequate manpower, communication and water availability in the hills helped this fire spread rapidly reaching the crown level. The thick smoke spread over the sky affecting visibility up to 14,000 feet.

10.0 Estimation of Losses from Forest Fires

The statistics on forest fire damage are very poor in the country. In the absence of proper data, it is difficult to arrive at the accurate losses from the forest fires. Moreover, the losses from fires in respect of changes in biodiversity, carbons sequestration capability, soil moisture and nutrient losses etc., cannot be measured but, nevertheless, are very significant from the point of view of ecological stability and environment conservation. To a certain extent, the loss due to

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forest fire can be estimated based on the inventories made by the FSI as reported in the state of forest report 1995 and subsequent field observations conducted by them. The statistics of losses from forest fires from the various states of the union is still very sketchy and fragmented. Much of the data available does not reflect the ground situation and is grossly under reported. The total reported loss from the states of the union is ground Rs 35 crores (US$ 7.3 million) annually.

The Forest Survey of India, data on forest fire attributed around 50% of the forest areas as fire prone. This does not mean that ountry’s 50% area is affected by fires annually. Very heavy, heavy and frequent forest fire damages are noticed only over 0.8%, 0.14% and 5.16% of the forest areas respectively. Thus, only 6.17% of the forests are prone to severe fire damage. In the absolute term, out of the 63 million ha of forests an area of around 3.73 million ha can be presumed to be affected by fires annually. At this level the annual losses from forest fires in India for the entire country have been moderately estimated at Rs 440 crores (US$ 107 millio n). This estimate does not include the loss suffered in the form of loss of biodiversity, nutrient and soil moisture and other intangible benefits. Based on the UNDP project evaluation report of 1987, the benefits of pilot proje t at today’s pri es if 40 million ha of forests are saved annually from forest fires due to implementation of modern forest fire ontrol methods the net amount saved at today’s pri es would come to be Rs 280 crores (US$ 6.8 million).

Towards a framework for integration forest fires management According to the Indian forest Act 1927 setting fire is a punishable offence and it is mandatory for the prevention of fire.

The National Forest Policy of 1988 has the same sprit although it lays greater fire prevention tool while continue to stress the involvement of local communities in the prevention has remained the same over almost a century: to have forests free of the influence of fire.

Thus the approach to fire management at the policy level runs counter to the approach to fire management forest- department communities. The approach to fire management at the policy level also runs counter ecosystem may have evolved with fire as natural disturbances, and that fire is an essential component to these systems. The mismatch between the policy – level and local level is remaining as a problem to fire management.

11. Initiatives

11.1 NATIONAL FOREST POLICY, 1988

In Resolution No. 13/52-F, dated the 12th May 1952, the Government of India in the erstwhile Ministry of Food & Agriculture enunciated a Forest Policy to be followed in the management of State Forests in the ountry. India’s National Forest Poli y amended in 1988 presents a visionary strategy for future forest conservation & management laying emphasis on protection of forest against encroachment, fire & grazing. The subject of forests is in the

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concurrent list of the Constitution of India. The Central Government & State Governments are both competent to legislate on this issue. The principle aim of the New National Forest Policy is

“to ensure environmental stability and maintenance of ecological balance." The policy addresses the problem of forest fires in the context of forest protection in the following specific terms:" The incidence of the forest fires in the country is high. Standing trees and fodder are destroyed on a large scale and natural regeneration annihilated by such fires. Special precautions should be taken during the fire season. Improved and modern management practices should be adopted to deal with forest fires."

11.2 Policy of forest fire (Rehabilitation and Response)

Every year one-third of all forests are damaged or affected by fire, and so an effective policy of forest fire prevention and control is extremely important. It was in this context that the modern forest fire control project was taken up in five districts of Uttaranchal viz., Pithoragarh, Rampur, Nanital, Pilibhit and Almora in 1985. The area proposed to be covered was 3, 72, 693 hectares. The following achievements are understood through these projects:

1. Development and demonstration of modern fire control techniques.

2. Preparation of division wise fire management plans.

3. Estimation of forest fires

4. Development and application of a forest fire danger rating system/ Training of personnel 5. Full fire protection of timber depots.

6. Manufacture of fire finders and hand tools within the country and standardization of fire control equipment.

12. Future Plan

12.1 National Plan for Forest Fire Management

The Para 4.8.2 of National Forest Policy has addressed a systematic plan for Forest Fire Management. According to the National Plan for Forest Fire Management special precautions should be taken during the fire season. Improved and modern management practices should be adopted to deal with forest fires. The main objectives o f the National Plan can be summarized as follows:

1. To strengthen the Organization responsible for Forest Fire Management.

2. To coordinate the States/U.T's plans for Systematic Forest Fire Management.

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3. To provide input regarding training, research, extension, and publicity for the Systematic Forest Fire Management.

4. To coordinate International Transfer of technology and training.

The state governments are encouraging Joint-Forest Management (JFM) by involving the people in afforestation programme. In Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh with a part of the forest is being managed by Forest Panchayats. In the Eastern Himalayan states local people through Village Councils and District Councils manage a substantial part of forest. So involvement of the people in forest management will certainly help in preventing forest fires by using a judicious combination of traditional and modern firefighting methods.

12.2 Research Issues

In India, there is an urgent need to initiate research in the fields of fire detection, suppression, and fire ecology for better management of forest fires. The research and technology developed in western countries always suitable for the Indian environment. Thus, it is essential that original research specific for Indian conditions be conducted. The Government is considering setting up a National Institute of Forest Fire Management with satellite centres in different parts of the country to bring the latest forest fire fighting technologies to India through proper research, training of personnel, and technology transfer on a long term basis.

13.0 Conclusion

Among disasters, the forest fire has been emerging as the most common disaster since last decade, disturbing the bio-diversity, the ecology and environment of a region. The forests of Western Himalayas are more frequent vulnerable to forest fire as compared to those in Eastern Himalayas. In 1995 forest fire had destroyed more than 3.75 million hectares of forest wealth in Uttaranchal alone. Of the total inventoried forest area of the countr y, on an average 8.92% is affected by frequent fire and 44.25% by occasional fire. Today, the most forest fires are the result of human neglect. The best way to control a forest fire is to prevent it from spreading by creating Fire Breaks in the shape of small clearings of ditches in the forests. Burning of forests and grasslands add also to already serious threat of global warming and pollution and may be a global source of methyl bromide, which is ozone, depleting substance. In India there is as yet no proper action plan to control forest fires. In Himalayan states, the involvement of the people under Joint Forest Management may certainly be helpful in preventing forest fires by using the modern fire- fighting methods.

References

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