‘Controlled fires’ to prevent wildfires

It may seem counter-intuitive, but forest department officials in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve are using ‘controlled fires’ for the first time to prevent the breakout of wildfires.

This is the first time ‘controlled fires’ are being used inside the reserve, apart from the road margins, as a means of forest management.

Using fire maps – with data collected from 1987 -- highlighting locations most prone to forest fires within the reserve, superimposed with maps detailing the spread and intensity of invasive plants like Lantana camara, forest department officials were able to identify spots where there was a build-up of biomass, which could serve as fuel for forest fires in the future.

Officials then conducted controlled burns of the identified area to reduce the fuel load, thereby decreasing the chances of more serious fires destroying large swathes of forest.

Srinivas R. Reddy, Field Director of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, said that through ‘controlled, cold burns’ where fuel load was high, chances of more serious fires breaking out become smaller.

Officials identified four locations where controlled fires were would be used for the first time, like near the Ombetta and the Game hut. “We had been using controlled burns along roadsides within the reserve since 2012, though this is the first time that the technique is being used inside the forests themselves,” added Mr. Reddy, stating that patches of coarse grass and lantana were being burned in a few isolated patches of grasslands and swamps inside the reserve.

“This would serve not only to reduce the fuel load, but also the impact of invasive species of flora like lantana and cestrum, while fresh grass will also regenerate and provide more fodder for ungulates,” said the field director.

In order to reduce the impact of the controlled burns on small fauna, the fires were only being started and contained within small strips of land.

N. Mohanraj, honorary wildlife warden (Mudumalai and surrounding eco-sensitive zones), said that controlled fires had long become an accepted form of forest management, like in the Yellowstone National Park.

“It has been very successful in places like Yellowstone, and the technique is to be used in all major elephant and tiger reserves across India,” he said adding that controlled fires can also help to overcome weeds and invasive plant species.

“When fire is used to remove invasive flora, the chances for native species to regenerate becomes much greater, as the seeds of the invasive plant or tree also stands a greater chance of being destroyed,” he said.