Karnataka saw 350% more forest fires in 2017 than three years ago

BENGALURU: Last year, a guard in Bandipur died in a forest fire. On Saturday, a forest officer was killed by an elephant when he was inspecting a blaze in the DB Kuppe forest range near Kabini. 50 hec In the first 34 days of this year, fire alarms from Karnataka forests went off constantly, with 60 such alerts sent to the Forest Survey of India (FSI) every day. According to FSI data, Karnataka is among the top five states in terms of alerts, along with Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha. In all, 3,704 alerts went out from Karnataka between January 1 and March 4 this year. Over the past seven days, there were 1,841 alerts, that's 263 every day. Not all are eventually recorded as forests fires as a detailed investigation is conducted before finalising how many actually constitute a forest fire. For example, in 2017, Karnataka reported 1,333 forest fires, a whopping 350% increase compared to 295 in 2015 and a 60% increase compared to 2016, when it was 831. This means Karnataka reported at least three forest fires every day, which experts say is quite high. Compared to the overall situation in India, the number seems insignificant: There were 35,888 forest fires in India in 2017, at the rate of 98 every day. PCCF (wildlife) C Jayaram said most forests in India, Karnataka included, are unlike those in the US or some other countries which see entire forests burning down to ashes. According to FSI deputy director E Vikram, most incidents reported in India are fires affecting the ground vegetation and lower storey. Jayaram agrees: "Yes, we don't have crown fires (entire tree catching fire) like in the US which affects the entire forests. Luckily, our fires cause minimal damage comparatively, but they're still a matter of concern." While massive pine forests are a concern across the northern landscape, in Karnataka, a major concern has been the vast presence of Lantana camara, a weed that grows easily and has several other useful qualities. "Lantana is woody and that makes it very difficult to douse the fire early. This makes the fire grow big," Jayaram said. Vikram pointed out that the country lacks modern fire-fighting methods. FSI and the Centre are looking at using geostationary data (evaluated by satellite images), reach more users; improve user awareness and establish a national forest fire database. Source: Times Of India