FIGHTING FOREST FIRES
Important points to be noted in this article are as follows :
Why has this issue cropped up ?
The recent wildfire tragedy in Theni in Tamil Nadu, in which 20 trekkers lost their lives, once again brings into focus forest fires in India.
Approaches to fighting forest fires
There are four approaches to fighting forest fires.
- TECHNOLOGY: The first is technological, where helicopters or ground-based personnel spray fire retardant chemicals, or pump water to fight the blaze. These are expensive methods and are usually not practised in India.
- COMPARTMENTS : The second is to contain the fire in compartments bordered by natural barriers such as streams, roads, ridges, and fire lines along hillsides or across plains.
- COUNTER FIRE :The third is to set a counter fire, so that when a fire is unapproachable for humans, a line is cleared of combustibles and manned. The counter fire rushes towards the wildfire and as soon as the two fires meet, the blaze is extinguished.
- BOUGHS : The fourth approach, which is the most practical and most widely used, is to have enough people with leafy green boughs to beat the fire out. This is practised in combination with fire lines and counter fires.
Mitigating the damage caused by forest fires
- ADEQUATE PERSONNEL : While communication and response time have been cut down, the actual numbers of Forest Department personnel that are sent to put out fires are woefully inadequate. We need to vastly increase the number of firefighters as well as equip them properly. They could also be paid better.
- CONTRACT LABOUR : Seasonal labour could be contracted during the fire season. With adequate training, they would serve to fill gaps along the line. Local villagers would be the best resource.
- ADEQUATE FUND : The constraint is funds. Vast amounts of funds are used for frivolous purposes like ‘planting forests’. In practice, they are mostly diverted to corrupt officials and political parties. Instead, those funds would be more than sufficient to cover the cost of a well-equipped and well-paid forest protection force.
- FIELD STAFF : More Forest Department field staff could be hired to put out fires during the fire season and to patrol the forests during other times.
Conclusion
Forests fires have increased over the years. Disaster management teams and the forest officials have also not been effective. The need of the hour is to regularly keep track of the state of the forest through images taken from satellites, increased ground staff and establishing a relation between the officials and the tribal people for increased co-operation to avoid such incidents in the future.
Relevance : GS 3
 Try this probable Mains question
 One of the most alarming challenges of our times are- forest fires. Discuss. Are forest fires advantageous as well? [ 200 words]
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