With Peak Season Looming, 6 Depts, Agencies Join Hands to Combat Forest Fires

Hyderabad:The long-standing problem of encroached forest areas is also contributing to a more immediate and serious concern, that of forest fires. An analysis by the forest department of forest fires over the last decade has found that 35 per cent occurred in close proximity to encroached forest land.

Telangana recorded 1,73,198 forest fires in the last 10 years of which 61,545 occurred within a distance of less than 200 metres from the boundaries of encroachments, or podu land parcels. The forest department estimates that some 20 per cent of all forest areas suffer from some degree of encroachment “indicating significant human activity within the forest” and, according to a senior official of the department, “encroachments increase the risk of forest fires.”

The near-static status of the annual fires since 2014-15, when 15,293 incidents were reported, compared to 15,052 reported in 2023-24, may appear that the situation has remained the same but much of it has to do with stepped-up fire prevention measures and improved fire-fighting operations. “Forest fires cannot be controlled by water, these are not like fires in urban areas where fire trucks can surround a fire and extinguish it. The challenges are many, the inaccessibility of some of the fires, and the sheer physical nature of putting them out,” deputy conservator of forests (MIS) S. Madhava Rao said.

This year, for the first time, various ‘line departments’ have joined forces to contain and combat forest fires. “The panchayat raj and rural development department too has joined the efforts along with forest, fire, police, SDRF, and also the NDRF which will be on call if the need arises,” Madhava Rao said. A coordination meeting with all the departments was held on January 30 to plan and make preparations for this year’s forest fire season, he said.

Almost all forest fires fall into the ground fires category, and there are very few canopy fires. Though most would assume that the highest number of fires should happen in the hottest summer months, data show that the numbers begin to pick up in February and peak in March.

“This is because nearly of the leaf fall that occurs by December end. The leaves fall loosely on the ground and are cushioned by air. When a fire starts, because the leaves are not decomposed, it burns fast and spreads. As times goes by, the fallen leaves get compacted and the number of fires comes down,” he said.

Incidentally, most of the more than 1.7 lakh fires in the state’s forests in the last 10 years covering nearly 27,000 sq km, resulted from some human action, either accidental or deliberate, as in the case of fires set by mahua flower collectors who burn the ground under the trees to make it easy to pick up the fallen flowers. Nearly all of them have occurred either near habitations on forest fringes, inside forests, or roads passing through the forests.

Action plan

How the forest department contains fires

Fire lines: 21,739 km

Peripheral trenches: 11,000 km

Watch towers: 73

Firefighting equipment: Blowers, rakes, spades, fire beaters, safety clothing, boots, ,

Fire risk zone mapping, early alerts for potential fire hazard areas

Fiery months

Data show February, March, April are the worst, in the last 10 years

January: 5,961

February: 37,258

March: 87,419

April: 31,936

May: 5,603

Fires in sanctuaries, tiger reserves

2014-15 – 4,984

2015-16 – 5,919

2016-17 – 5,105

2017-18 – 6,440

2018-19 – 5,351

2019-20 – 4,476

2020-21 – 7,626

2021-22 – 5,335

2022-23 – 5,326

2023-24 – 5,073