Vulnerability to Wildfire

According to WHO “A wildfire is an unplanned fire that burns in a natural area such as a forest, grassland, or prairie. Wildfires are often caused by human activity or a natural phenomenon such as lightning, and they can happen at any time or anywhere. In 50% of wildfires recorded, it is not known how they started”.

Wildfire:

• Several 37,059 fires were detected in 2018 using MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer) sensor data. Each year large areas of forests are damaged by fires of varying intensity and extent.
• In India, 54.40% of the forests are exposed occasionally to fires, 7.49% to moderately frequent fires, and 2.405% to fires with high incidence levels, according to the forest inventory records. Comparatively, 35.71% of Indian forests have yet to be affected by significant fires.
• Precious forest resources, including carbon locked in the biomass, are lost because of forest fires each year, which negatively impact the flow of goods and services from forests.
• Satellite-based remote sensing technology and GIS tools have been effective in better prevention and management of fires by creating an early warning for fire-prone areas, monitoring fires on a real-time basis and estimating burnt scars.
• Scientists say the forest fires in some parts of northern India and neighbouring Nepal have been the strongest in the past 15 years.
• The European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) said that Uttarakhand’s forest fires emitted nearly 0.2 megatonnes of carbon in the one month of 2021, a record since 2003.

Extremely dry circumstances, such as a drought, and strong winds both enhance the risk of wildfires. Transportation, communications, power and gas utilities, as well as the water supply, can all be affected by wildfires. They also result in the loss of resources, crops, people, animals, and property, as well as a decline in air quality.