Hummingbird News Desk
KRISHNAGAR, 22 FEB: Yet once again, fires raged across the Bahadurpur forest in Nadia for approximately four hours, till forest and fire brigade officials brought them under control this evening.
“The fires may have been man-made. We are not sure. By 6 pm, forest staff, fire brigade officials and some villagers got it under control,” said Biswajit Ghosh, a local resident.
“Wildfires are an annual occurrence at Bahadurpur and nearby Bethuadahari forests in Nadia. Last month, fire raged this forest and forest officials struggled hard to douse the flames. Though, no big incident occurred here, but this should be checked”, said Asit Dey, another local resident.
A forest official (who did not wish to be named) said, “This is the season for wildfire. Many people carelessly throw ignited biris or cigarette on the dry leaves laid on the forest ground which led to the fire.”
According to the India State of Forest Report 2019, over 30,000 incidents of forest fires were reported in India in 2019.
Additionally, more than 36 percent of Indian forest cover (657,000 sq km area) is prone to frequent forest fires and of this, 10 percent are highly prone, according to a Forest Survey of India (FSI) report on fire prone forest areas. Around 21 percent of the total forest cover is highly to extremely fire prone, adds the latest forest survey.
The dry deciduous forests, which receive low rainfall, face 5-6 dry months and have nutrient poor soil, such as those in tropical and subtropical latitude, are more vulnerable to fire compared to others. These areas are in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and in the southern states. Chir pine forests in hilly states are equally prone.
Over 40 percent of Uttar Pradesh forests are susceptible to fire. Among the major forests’ zones of Vindhya region, Bundelkhand and Terai, the subtropical forests of Terai region (which lies alongside the Nepal border) is the most fire prone one.
