Forest fires have become a seasonal phenomenon in Kerala. High summer temperatures, gusty winds and the effects of drought have combined to create perfect conditions for fire.
The first two weeks of the five-month fire season, which begins in February, has witnessed 437.74 hectares of forest getting gutted in the State. The driest months of the year are yet to come and if it does not rain the present season would turn out to be the toughest one in recent times, fear forest authorities.
The risk assessment carried out by the Forest Department had classified around 400 sq km of forest as facing high risk. It was the grasslands and teak plantations that were highly susceptible to wildfire. Most number of fires were reported from Palakkad and Punalur in Kollam district during the first two weeks of the season, according to data compiled at the forest headquarters.
Conservationist Asad Rahmani has written to the Chief Minister to provide more men and facilities to control forest fire. In an open letter, he said “this year has been quite brutal in terms of forest fires in northern districts of Kerala”. In Wayanad, particularly, both sholas and grasslands have been affected adversely. The Chembra mountains, the habitat of Banasura Chilappan, one of the newly discovered bird species of the Western Ghats, were vulnerable to forest fire, he said.
Ground-level action
With more instances of fire being reported from different parts of the State, the Forest Department decided to deploy more men to tackle it. The department opened 92 control rooms to keep a close watch on the situation and activated the department’s fire monitoring cell at the forest headquarters.
However, conservationists said that technological interventions were yet to reach the Forest Department when it came to controlling forest fires. The most common practice was to put out fire manually using bunches of leaves. Creation of preventive fire lines was another method deployed by the firefighters. This was not enough. There was an urgent need to rope in disaster management experts to control forest fires, conservationists said.
Sekhar L. Kuriakose, member secretary, Kerala State Disaster Management Authority, said the use of helicopters to control a recent fire in Thiruvananthapuram district was a sign of the changing times and strategies. It was for the first time that helicopters were pressed into action considering the possibility of fire spreading to human habitations.
Internal migration
Shortage of water and fodder, and fire have resulted in internal migration of animals to greener pastures. The Mankulam Forest Division, which is free of forest fires and has live water sources and vegetation, is attracting animals from the dry zones.
The increased number of animal sightings in the region can be attributed to these factors. On the negative side, internal migration of animals from their habitats could also lead to increased instances of human-animal conflicts, and that would be another additional headache for the forest authorities.
