Answer: According to a report by Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), more than 30 percent of Indian districts are vulnerable to extreme forest fires. It also found that Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra are the most prone to high-intensity forest fire events caused by rapid change in the climate.

Factors responsible for the occurrence of Forest-Fires:

• Natural Causes: Global temperature rise because of climate change, Accumulation of large quantities of pine needles on forest floor, Lightning, friction due to rolling stones.
• Human activities: Anthropogenic activities like slash and burn cultivation, land-use change and poor land and forest management mean wildfires are more often encountering the fuel and weather conditions conducive to becoming destructive.
• Lack of Fire Management: Inadequate fire management practices, including the lack of firebreaks, controlled burns, and early detection systems, exacerbate the size and severity of forest fires in India.
• Poor Forest Health: Forests that are stressed due to pests, diseases, or mismanagement are more prone to fires as they accumulate dead vegetation, creating a significant fuel load.
• Challenging Terrain: The presence of hilly and rugged terrains in certain regions of India makes it difficult for firefighting crews to access and control fires, allowing them to grow larger and more intense.

Vulnerable regions: The mountain ranges of Himalayas are the most vulnerable stretches of the world which are susceptible to the forest fires. The forests of Western Himalayas are more vulnerable to forest fires as compared to those in Eastern Himalayas. This is because forests of Eastern Himalayas grow in high rain density.

National Action Plan on Forest Fire, 2018

• Fire Risk Zonation and mapping: It provides a scientific basis for identifying areas of priority for management interventions, allocating resources to priority areas, and monitoring the effectiveness of measures to reduce or control fire risk.
• Use of fire risk zones in forest planning: The Working Plan Officers shall identify activities to mitigate fire risk or reduce impact of the fire hazards in high-risk areas.
• Effective communication strategy for awareness generation: It should be specifically targeted at students, farmers, women groups,etc. Information on forest fire and its adverse effects should also be included in the school curriculum at several levels.
• Capacity building of communities: The capacity of community organizations in prevention and control of forest fires should be enhanced by periodical training and capacity building programmes.
• Increasing the resilience of forests to fires: By moisture and water conservation, forest floor biomass management, weed management, etc.
• Improving the efficacy of the fire alert system: By digitization of forest boundaries, by promoting greater adoption of the Forest Fire Alert System, etc.
• Fire Suppression: By Training for field staff, firewatchers, and community firefighters, by development of adequate infrastructure for fire suppression, etc.

Apart from these, the government should recognise forest fires as a natural hazard and earmark more funds for mitigation-related activities. Also, forest fires should be recognised as a disaster under the National Disaster Management Act (NDMA).