The Forest Service of India (FSI) recently reported a record-low number of wildfires in the country this year.
The country’s Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) said a total of 203,544 forest fires burned in the country between November 2023 and June 2024, the lowest number of wildfires in the same period over the past four years. The ministry made the announcement at a recent session of Parliament.
“Forest fires in India are detected using satellite-based sensors called the SNPP-VIIRS (Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership – Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite),” according to The Print. “Along with that, the FSI also has a monitoring and alert system in place that sends SMSes and emails to registered users in the event of a fire.”
Past numbers mark a steady decline from a historic high wildfire total of 345,989 between November 2020 and June 2021. The ministry also released state-by-state data, which showed Uttarakhand to have the highest number of wildfires this year at 21,033 — followed by Odisha at 20,973.
MoEFCC attributed the declining wildfire totals to India’s National Disaster Management Authority’s training of three disaster relief battalions to specifically deal with forest fires. There are 150 people spread across the three teams’ locations who are sent to fight forest fires.
The country’s government earlier faced criticism from experts regarding its wildfire response and its attempt to pivot blame away from systemic issues and solely toward forest duff and pine litter.
MoEFCC did not cite estimates on the loss of forest or wildlife caused by wildfires in the country, data that has been previously asked for by experts.
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi published a study in 2023 outlining how climate change will negatively affect future fire weather danger in Indian forests. The study projected then that India would see a 60 percent increase in fire weather danger in dry forests with a 40 percent reduction in humid forests. The fire season is also estimated to be longer (by 3 to 61 days) across the country and pre-monsoon fire season is predicted to become more intense in over 55 percent of forests. The study’s findings led researchers to call specifically for changes in how wildfires are tracked and fought at the regional level.
“India is a known biodiversity hotspot, and this biodiversity is affected by forest fires that play a critical role in ecosystem dynamics,” researchers said. “This study clearly demonstrates that there is considerable heterogeneity in the fire danger between and even within forest zones. Hence, a national uniform threshold for fire danger is not advisable. Fire management and mitigation policies must be based on local-regional level metrics.”
