Almost 70 % of Indian forest types are of dry tropical forest types which are more vulnerable to natural or man made disasters, most importantly forest fires. Although forest fires have both rejuvenating and destructive roles, recent incidents of forest fires in places like Bandipur tiger reserve calls for adoption of more sustainable methods to avoid incidents of rampant forest fires which threatens both human life and biodiversity of the regions.
ISSUES CONCERNED WITH FOREST FIRES IN INDIA
- Minimal equipment support coupled with difficult situations raised due to challenging terrain made the fire fighting process in the Indian forest ecosystem more challenging one.
- Forest species like Lantana biomass with high amount of oil content aggravates the situations of forest fires.
- Cultural and livelihood importance of forest fires in the lives of forest dwellers create impedance for the implementation of government policies like ” No fire forest policy” .
- Adoption of traditional mechanisms make the fire fighting process less efficient.
Indian forest are one among the unique landscapes across the world that comprises rich flora and fauna. Being one of the 10 forest rich countries across the world , its time for India to adopt a multi pronged approach by incorporating technological advances like cloud seeding technique to fight forest fires, applications of drones to monitor forest fires, installation of heat sensing equipment’s and advanced night vision camera’s to provide adequate protection to the forests covers in the country.
Oracle 