National Action Plan on Forest Fires

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has prepared National Action Plan on Forest Fire to minimize forest fires during 2018.

Vulnerability to Forest Fires

Forest Survey of India has reported that 54.40% of forests in India are exposed to occasional fires, 7.49% to moderately frequent fires and 2.40% to high incidence levels while 35.71% of India’s forests have not yet been exposed to fires of any real significance. Major affected areas lie in the North East India and in the forests on the Deccan plateau. Prolonged droughts make forests vulnerable to fires and the changing climate further aggravates their vulnerability. The fragmentation of most of Indian forests, interspersed with habitations of all sizes, results in high human presence in most forested areas which adds to their vulnerability to fires.

Objective

Minimize forest fires from taking place by informing, enabling and empowering forest fringe communities and may be incentivizing them to work in tandem with the forest departments.

General Principles

• The prescribed actions in this NAPFF are intended to guide and assist the policy makers, administrators, forest officers, frontline staff, forest user agencies, forest 5 fringe communities, visitors to forests, and civil society, for a holistic management of fires in forests.
• Preventing fires from taking place and improving resilience of the forests against fire hazards shall form priority in forest management policies, strategies and programs with well-defined aims of conservation of biodiversity, wildlife and forest wealth.
• The safety of the people, both resident and transient, firefighters, and fire managers shall always be accorded the highest priority during fire events.
• There shall be a clear line of command for assuming the lead role and duties in the event of a forest fire.
• Districts shall form the units for Forest Fire Management planning and implementation for ease in coordination with the Disaster Management Authorities at the national, state and district levels.

Suggested measures

1. Fire Risk Zonation and mapping
   • Risk factors
   • Use of fire risk zones in forest planning
2. Preventing forest fires
   • Effective communication strategy for awareness generation
   • Empowering Communities to deliver on their responsibilities
   • Capacity building of communities
3. Increasing the resilience of forests to fires
   • Moisture and water conservation
   • Forest floor biomass management
   • Weed Management
4. Forest Fire Preparedness
   • Forest fire detection and alert
   • Digitize the location of critical resources and assets
   • Forest Fire Lines
   • Control Burning
5. Fire Suppression
   • Training for field staff, fire watchers, and community firefighters
   • Equipping the firefighters
   • Development of adequate infrastructure for fire suppression
   • Arrangements for adequate manpower in fire prone areas
6. Post Fire management
   • Assessment of loss due to forest fires
   • Proper investigation of the causes
   • Restoration of fire affected areas
7. Coordination with Other Agencies
8. Centre of Excellence for Forest Fires
9. Mobilization of Financial resources

To access the complete action plan, click here.

Source : Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change