Satellite images show that there’s been a decline in the number of forest fires in Uttarakhand since April 28. Though fires in the region are still intense, images that have been sourced from two U.S. satellites Aqua and Terra and available on ISRO’s Bhuvan platform show an uptick between April 27-April 29 and then a fall, a fact that’s also been confirmed by ground reports from Uttarakhand.
Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Shatrughna Singh told The Hindu that forest fires had reduced in the past five days. “On April 27 there were 140 forest fire incidents, which increased to 338 on April 28. The incidents further increased to 477 on April 29 but came down to 219 on April 30,” Mr. Singh said, adding that the number had come down to 112 by Sunday.
An official at ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Agency in Hyderabad said that they hadn’t updated the latest figures for May 1 but confirmed that fire reports, reflected on the satellite maps, were a combination of satellite as well as ground reports.
Visitors to ISRO’s website can view daily updates of the fires. Red circles indicate active fire locations and they are a composite of how the two satellites detect changes in heat on the land. Nearly 36 different wavelengths are analysed by these satellites for them to specify the locations of probable fires, said P.K. Joshi, a satellite imagery specialist and professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Meanwhile, the Environment Ministry said that last month alone, fire ravaged nearly 1900 hectares of forest in about 1200 locations. In 2012, fire had broken out in over 1300 places and more than 2,000 hectares was affected. Over 6000 labourers have been deployed for fire-fighting and Rs. 5 crore has been sanctioned for containment efforts.
Since last year, the National Remote Sensing Agency, has been coordinating with State forest officials, to warn of possible fires through analysing satellite images.
Local television channels are running 30-second spots telling people how to take care of such fires and how they can also contribute to fire-fighting efforts. Two years of drought and a rise in the average temperature, low relative humidity and strong winds have all contributed to the fires. A Minister told The Hindu last week that forest fires followed certain cyclic patterns with a peak between 4-5 years in a five-year cycle.
( With inputs from Kavita Upadhyay )
