From around middle of February, forest fire incidents begin and continue till onset of rain in July. The period is very crucial as regards protection of forests.
The burning of forests due to fire, especially in deciduous forests like us, is very common and properties worth crores of rupees are destroyed and animals, birds, reptiles and their eggs and newborns are killed for fire in the wild. So, preventive measures should be taken adequately for protection, preservation and development of ecological systems, especially of tropical origin.
Generally, the forest fires are of two types, one is crown fire and the other is ground fire. The crown fire is very common in coniferous forests. These forests species are oily and are very susceptible to fire.
These forests are found in Koraput district and in a very small patch in Similipal forests. In deciduous forests, the ground fire is very common, which should be prevented at any cost to save the ecosystems from perilous situations.
As preventive measures, the Orissa Forest (Fire- Protection) Rules, 1979, is promulgated for protection of precious flora and fauna of the State from perpetual fire accidents. But as it is seen, the rules framed under the provision of the Orissa Forest Act 1972 are not faithfully and meticulously followed since the inceptions for prevention of fire in Odisha forests. There are two kinds of fire seen in Odisha; one is accidental and the other is deliberate. The accidental forest fire is very rare in Odisha forests; which is commonly ignited from the sources of railway engines. The sparks of fire from locomotives some time cause fire in the forests. And, the other accidental forest fires are from rubbing of trees due to the action of wind in the forests. This is also rarest in the forests. But all the forest fires are deliberate; and people set fire to the forests for various reasons for their personal interests, including the unscrupulous forest employees; who set fire in the forest to obliterate the evidences of theft of forest products. The people of forest dwellers and the people residing in the vicinity of the forest blocks commonly set fire to the forests for collection of minor forest produces and collection of fodders, especially for collection of new flush of grasses for their cattle. Again for collection of ashes from forest fire to manure their cultivable lands, some people in the vicinity of forests set fire o the forests. Besides the above reasons, there are people, and employees of the Forest Department, particularly in the kendu leaf organization, for easy collection of new flush kendu leaves, who set fire to the forests. To hush up public funds meant for bush cutting for collection of new leaves from waste lands adjoining to forest areas, the forest employees with the help of local people, set fire to the forests unscrupulously. The prevention of these crimes is most important to save our ecological systems from wild fires. To prevent these crimes, the cooperation and help of people from all kinds of forest dwellers is required to make the forest wealth of the State safe.
So the Orissa Forest (Fire- Protection) Rules 1979 has been promulgated to prevent forest fire in all kinds of forests of the State. Similarly, the village Forests Rules 1985 under the provision of Orissa Forest Act 1972 should be meticulously followed to save the forest resources as well as the regional climate of the country. Without people’s participation, no mechanism of the State Government or the Government of India can save the forest resources of the State from rapid destructions.
Other than the above legal enactments, there are other functional and physical means to take preventive steps against forest fire in the State. Such physical measures are maintenance of block-boundaries, creation of fire lines in different directions like chess-board pattern to localize the fire if fire accident occurs for any reason. Besides the above, the fire fighting equipment of all types should be kept ready before fire season sets in. Helicopters are also now used as firefighting equipment to locate forest fires and to drop the fighters with equipment.
The damages of forest wealth caused due to forest fire cannot be assessed easily as it is so vast. Now, large scale forest plantations in public sector are going on in different forest blocks and village commons. If such forest lands and other carbon sinks raised artificially are not protected from fire, the whole public funds will go waste for sheer negligence. So, all these areas are to be included within the actions of preventive measures for public interests. In advanced and promised nations in the globe, the army is employed for protection of forest wealth from fire. Now the worldwide the natural forests are protected and new artificial forests are raised for preventing carbon accumulation in atmosphere and for reducing carbon deposits in the same.
The forests are the only measures to assimilate the atmospheric carbons and to save the globe from atmospheric hazards. So the greenbelts and all kinds of floristic compositions of natural or artificial of shrubs, herbs and tree growths should be protected to save the globe from atmospheric hazards. Similarly, the forest covers give protections to mother soil which mothers the flora and fauna of the nature from erosion. If the top soil is lost and washed out, which functions as mother soil, the whole region will lead to desertification. Similarly, the new soil is formed due to decomposition of leaf litters and dead animals from forest dwellers. The forests also do the measure functions of climate amelioration and sustainable climatic management.
Similarly, water conservation measures cannot be expected without forest cover. The forest wealth is the means of water conservation and sustainable management of water resources cannot be thought up without restoration of forests and forest compositions. At present, the sub-soil water table is shrinking very fast throughout the State and country for loss of crop composition of the nature. So the scientific management of forests rests on protection of forests from fire. The forest fire also destroys the microbic activities of soil and makes the soil dead for all practical purposes. The cause of forest fire should be known at any cost for future guidance. Now we are spending crores of money for raising new plantations in different schemes and in different names; but we are not giving much attention to protection of forests from fire. Similipal is known worldwide for home of Royal Bengal Tiger, which burns thrice during fire season for our faulty forest management.
(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist. Tel no 9937460649)