Death Of Three Forest Guards In Kerala Battling A Wildfire Shows How Ill-Equipped We Are

Just a few months back the world watched in horror how vast area of the Amazon forest in Brazil was reduced into a pile of ash due to the devastating forest fires, which burnt for weeks before it finally slowed down.

REUTERS

Even before we recovered from the shock of it, came the Australia bushfires. The unseasonal fires, which are said to be the worst on record burnt an estimated 46 million acres, destroyed over 5,900 buildings and killed at least 34 people. An estimated one billion animals have been killed and some endangered species may be driven to extinction.

REUTERS

Back home in India, with the summers just around the corner, the country will also see several, big and small forest fires in the coming months.

And what is happening even before the summer sets in is anything to go by, we are in for some bad news this year.

On Sunday, three forest watchers were killed after they were trapped inside a major wildfire in the Vadakkanchery forest range in the Thrissur district of Kerala.

Divakaran, Velayudhan, and Shankaran were killed while trying to douse a fire that broke out at Desamangalam on the district¡¯s border.

The fire which, authorities believe was set deliberately by some miscreants was reported on Sunday morning and by afternoon it had got out of control.

Following the death of the three guards, there are allegations that the department was not prepared to deal with wildfires, which is going to spike in the next few months.

BCCL

In fact, it is not just Kerala, forest departments across the country are severely ill-equipped when it comes to controlling wildfires. The kind of deployment of resources in Australia bushfire is something that India can only dream of.

Many see this as the result of not having a well thought out policy at the national level.

BCCL

In 2018, a report, ¡°Strengthening Forest Fire Management in India¡±, jointly prepared by the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the World Bank had said that forest fires are the leading cause of forest degradation in India.

The report which discussed policies on forest fire prevention and management (FFPM) at the national, state and local levels, underscoring the need for a comprehensive national policy and guidelines provided recommendations on five broad themes ¨C policy, institutions and capacity, community engagement, technology, and data and information and looks at national and international best practices in FFPM.

BCCL

It also noted that rather than prescribing specific fire-suppression tools to be used in all states, states should be encouraged to experiment, and best practices are scaled up, where appropriate.

BCCL

Another significant recommendation it made was to fill the vacancies for field staff, particularly in fire-prone areas, and to make adequate and reliable funding available, and also engage the communities that depend on forests and agencies the manage forests and responding to forest fires, such as disaster management agencies, the report says.

BCCL

It also suggests that the National FFPM Action Plan should delineate the roles and responsibilities of the MoEFCC, state forest departments, communities, and disaster agencies.

While it all sounds good on paper, the unfortunate reality is that we have made little to no progress in that front.

BCCL

We are still stuck where we were. The massive forest fire that broke out at the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka in 2019 is a classic case.

The fire that broke out on February 21 burned till February 25, engulfing an area of 10,920.9 acres.

It was brought under control by the efforts of some 400 forest and fire service personnel, 15 volunteers and two Mi-17 helicopters from IAF.

BCCL

According to the India State of Forest Report 2019, over 30,000 incidents of forest fires were reported in India in 2019.

And the worst part of it is that around 95 percent of them were due to human activity.