Forest Fire
GS-1 Geography
With rising mercury levels, Uttarakhand's forest fire season has now reached its peak.
There are two primary causes of wildfires, viz. Human and Natural.
Human Causes
- 90% of all wildfires are caused by humans.
- Human acts of carelessness such as leaving campfires unattended and negligent discarding of cigarette butts result in wildfire disasters every year.
- Accidents, deliberate acts of arson, burning of debris, and fireworks are the other substantial causes of wildfires.
Natural Causes
- Lightning: A fairly good number of wildfires are triggered by lightning.
- Volcanic Eruption: Hot magma in the earth’s crust is usually expelled out as lava during a volcanic eruption. The hot lava then flows into nearby fields or lands to start wildfires.
- Temperature: High atmospheric temperatures and dryness offer favourable conditions for a fire to start.
- Climate Change is causing a gradually increasing surface air temperature, which can propagate forest fires.
- Weather Components: Warmer temperatures and lower humidity cause vapour pressure deficit to increase which can dry fuels rapidly and allow fires to grow very fast
Forest Fire Prevention and Management in India
- Forests are a subject in the concurrent list (brought under this list through 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976) of the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
- National Action Plan on Forest Fires (NAPFF-2018) of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
- MoEFCC also provides forest fire prevention and management measures under the Centrally Sponsored Forest Fire Prevention and Management (FPM) scheme.
- 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 a center-state cost-sharing formula, with a 90:10 ratio of central to state funding in the Northeast and Western Himalayan regions and a 60:40 ratio for all other states.
- It also provides the states the flexibility to direct a portion of the National Afforestation Programme (NAP) and Mission for Green India (GIM) funding toward forest fire work.
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