Taking a lesson from one of the most widespread forest fires in State, the education department is planning to include forest fire and disaster management in the curriculum of primary classes of Government schools. Till now the textbooks of students of classes VI to VIII have lessons on disaster management which inform students about the causes and prevention of forest fires, earthquakes, floods and landslides.
The Additional Director, State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT), Geeta Nautiyal, told The Pioneer that the department is working on preparing the teaching module for the primary students in which they too would be made aware about a natural disaster like forest fire. She said that with about 70 percent of State under forest cover it is natural that they should be informed about the causes and prevention of forest fire from an early stage. Nautiyal said that on the orders of Secretary, School education, D Senthil Pandian, the department would impart training to the teachers on disaster management soon. lecturer SCERT, S K Srivastava said that teaching module on forest fire would involve their cause and preventive measures one should take. He said that the training of teachers on the burning issue is of importance and the department is working on their sensitization on the subject.
The plan of the department to include forest fire in the curriculum is being welcomed by environmental experts. The Principal of Government College Narendra Nagar, Govind Singh Rajwar said that involvement of local community is important in any long term solution to control forest fires and the plan to make students aware about the preventive measures and ecological aspects of the fires is appreciable. Rajwar who has authored many books and papers on environment and ecology is a Professor of Botany, informed that big trees usually survive the fire but small ones like new saplings are destroyed totally in them.
The unprecedented forest fires in the State this year have attracted global attention due to their sheer magnitude. The forest department data reveals that 1317 instances of forest fire in the state have occurred in the State this year.