Forest fires not only destroy the trees, shrubs, wild animals and birds but also precious medicinal plants. The nude soil left after the forest fires is unable to absorb water and hence causes accelerated soil erosion, severe flash floods, and sometimes droughts.

Ravaging forest fires turn forest areas into virtual tinderboxes destroying the organic matter, thereby depleting soil fertility. Air pollution caused due to heavy fires gives rise to many health problems. Crown fires may kill the leaves of shade trees with the result that the water-holding capacity of the soil decreases and natural water sources dry up gradually. Besides that, fires destroy useful micro-organisms in the soil.

While the poor people are deprived of food, cattle and wild animals are starved of fodder and grass. The sustainability of the ecosystem is jeopardised.

The most vulnerable forests are those of chir pine. Accumulation of a thick mat of chir pine needles on the floor of the forest acts as an active source of fuel of high inflammability. As the thick mat tends to suppress the growth of grass, the landless rural people in the hope of getting a luxuriant flush of grass, generally set fire to it. This fire later spreads to the rest of the forest. The fires also destroy the young trees and new plants rarely take root to replace the dead trees. This menace repeated year after year is responsible for degradation of chir pine forests.

The problem is further complicated by the fact that forests once burnt become more susceptible to subsequent fires, which are likely to be larger and faster-moving and thus more dangerous. A forest burnt once may recover with the passage of time, but it rarely regains its constitution and composition.

Most foresters believe that fires are a part of the forest ecosystem and they help in the evolution of forest communities. The scientific management of forests in India is said to be more than 125 years old. The well-documented National Forest Policy advocates the protection of forests against fires on a priority basis. Forest officers are logistically trained to manage the forest on standards that are on a par with international standards. The Ministry of Environment and Forests has a special scheme to provide financial assistance to states for adopting preventive measures, which include preparation of fire-lines, construction of watch towers, development of a communication network, etc. But in spite of these measures, fires do occur frequently. As far back as 1914, a standard operating procedure on fire protection for chir pine forest was laid down by a British officer, Mr Glover. These instructions were later reviewed and revised in the year 1940 after continuous research and investigation into the causes of forest fires. But after Independence, not much attention has been paid to addressing this menace.

The Indian Forest Act (1927) also has legal provisions to deal with offences regarding forest fires. Section 79 of the Act requires that every person who exercises any right in a Reserved or Protected Forest, or every person who is employed in a village contiguous to the forest, shall furnish without unnecessary delay, to the nearest forest officer or police officer, information about the occurrence of a fire, and shall extinguish the forest fire within his knowledge, the penalty for failure to do so is imprisonment of one month or fine of Rs 200 or both.

However, when all-out efforts are being made to increase the productivity of the forests as well as to increase the forest cover by growing trees on all types of available marginal wastelands and even on farmers’ fields through externally aided afforestation projects, the legal provision seems to be too mild to safeguard the interest of forests. Natural forests as well as plantations raised at a considerable cost cannot be protected under the aegis of this provision, as the fires have the potential of reducing into ashes within hours, forest growth built up over years.

Most forest fires in northern India are caused by smouldering matchsticks and cigarette butts carelessly thrown on the forest floor. Shepherds and forest workers sometimes light fires and leave them unattended. Many times, villagers while burning private grasslands or ghasnis during the dry season, fail to contain the fires, thus causing wild fires. Incendiarism resorted to by certain individuals to destroy the forest crop with the motive of encroaching on the resultant vacant land for agricultural purposes, is another major cause of fires. There are also instances when fires have been the result of hostile relations between forest officials and local people. The growing man-forest conflicts, rising pressure on forest land due to decreasing land-man ratio are adding new dimensions to the problem. Harvesting practices like burning of crop residues are, to a great extent, responsible for fires in the plains. Fires are also caused deliberately by honey collectors, and illicit felling gangs.

Involving people at the village level for protection of forests and sharing the benefits that accrue from the forests with them is the major thrust of the National Forest Policy, 1988, but is rarely practised in the states. Few states in India have so far been able to constitute Forest Protection Committees. In the absence of coordination and willingness of the people at large to extend help for detection of fires, it becomes difficult for the Forest Department to prevent and fight forest fires. Forest fires can be successfully contained when they are small and can be prevented from spreading with the help of local people who are the first to detect them.

Strategies to prevent the forest fires, therefore, should aim at involving people residing near the forests. There is no harm in sharing the usufructs of the protected forests instead of losing the entire capital. Alternatively, the government should come out with modern systems of fire detection through satellite imagery, setting up of control rooms at strategic points, preparedness for fire fighting in the fire-season, and quick dispatch of trained fire fighters through mobile fire engines and helicopters as is the practice in European countries. Fire fighting in the hills is a challenging task. The direction and velocity of wind, the thickness of fuel accumulated on the forest floor, and the terrain are the factors which guide the fire-fighting operations. The sooner we approach the fire, the easier and more quickly it can be controlled. Meagre resources, lack of preparedness and of trained personnel, however, are the major constraints which make it difficult to apply these practices in the field. Moreover, the firm belief in the minds of many, that once a forest fire erupts it is uncontrollable, although false, also contributes to increasing the damage. After a few pilot projects in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh, we have again reverted to the traditional brooming fire-fighting practices which actually work in the Indian forests. The fact is that the forests of India can be best protected by the people and none else.

People have to be reminded of the age-old bond that exists between them and the forests. Forests mean not only wood-products but also water, medicinal plants, gene-pools of life-forms and life-support systems of nature developed over millions of the years. The more people learn about forests, the more they would like to protect them. One has to admit however, that forest departments throughout India have been largely unsuccessful in getting any educational message across to the villagers and tribals living in the forest. The gap between the forest officials and the villagers remains as wide as ever, except in a very few instances where an individual official has established a better understanding between them.

Unfortunately, neither is the occurrence of forest fires very well documented, nor are the statistics related to fires available on comparable and continuous basis. Research in this direction is still nascent. Intensive multi-disciplinary research should be undertaken on an appropriate scale on various aspects of forest fires, with emphasis on fire prevention, including surveys of attitudes and behaviour of different groups of people towards forest fires. An aggressive publicity campaign should be launched for imparting fire prevention. There is a need for comprehensive legislation providing inter-alia stringent penalty for those who tend to endanger forests as well as suitable incentives for those who protect forests.