India: Forest Fire and its Prevention by Generating Environmental Awareness in the Rural Masses (IFFN No. 21 – October 1999)

Role of Forest Department in Implementing the Programme

The institutionalization of the conceptual shift in Forest management from purely state sponsored to Joint Management with people’s involvement has been gradual among the various levels in the Forest department. This has brought a change in their role from mere conservation to development i.e development through participation. Efforts are going on at the national level to reorient the foresters at all levels to the new task. Forest department is no more alienated from the people. They are increasingly accepted by the people as agents of change and are being offered assistance and co-operation in their efforts. It is glaringly evident in this case of Forest fire protection with community involvement.

It is due to the efforts of foresters – right form forest guard to the Divisional Forest Officer – now people have clearly understood the urgent need for forest protection which could be achieved only through their involvement. Forest fire which has been responsible for extensive damage to the forests of this area has came in handy to the forest department to convincingly demonstrative the effects of the of forest destruction to the people. How much people have realized the magnitude of the problem is quite evident from the remark of the elderly person, Mr.Venkatesan of Nathagodenpudur “if a tree is cut, there is a chance for its regeneration. But if it is burnt, it is dead, no question of its regeneration. This statement does not imply that he is for cutting the tree, but it clearly shows that the strategy of forest department by taking up the forest fire – visual evidence of vast destruction of forests – as the major issue and first step in forest protection has succeeded in lagging the community efforts with their own mission.

Reorientation at the grassroots level of the department- shedding the fallacy about their uniform – has helped them to build good rapport with the local people. Though the forest guards and range officers still wear uniform, because of their attitudinal and behaviourial change they are now largely approachable by the people. We observed that in all villages, the people right from school children to old people including women – converge to approach the officers whenever the forest department vehicle enters into the village rather than disperse away as a mark of fear and distaste. This perceptional change on both sides has triggered the mutual dynamism to work together for the common cause of forest protection.

The fringe area of Western ghats coming under Coimbatore territorial forest division is highly prone to fire, especially in summer seasons. Since the whole coimbatore district falls under rain shadow area, its forests are all the more vulnerable to fire. Compared to Irular tribal community, the other neighbourhood rural communities are less dependent on forest. Their main occupation is agriculture and due to industrialization, their focus of dependency for income has gradually shifted from forest to urban centres. In many of the villages it has been observed that number of dwellings have decreased due to out migration. In addition, the diversification in occupation, for example towards brick line (particularly in Thadagam area) also reduces the people’s dependency on forests. Though the brick cline, by and large have a destructive influence over the ecology of this area, one beneficial effect observed is that it has been successful in reducing the biotic pressure on neighbouring forests. The local people now earn many more times than what they used to earn through forest based products earlier. Moreover their working schedule is also highly regulated. Yet another impact of these bricks cline is to be seen in agriculture and its allied activities. Agriculture has adversely affected as many farmers (the farmers of this area were supposed to be highly progressive and agricultural productivity of this region was very high.) have leased out their productive land for brick cline which are more remunerative. Most of the brick cline are managed and owned by outsiders who have only business interest and least bothered about ecological sustainability of the area. They indiscrimately exploit the productive topsoil and have made the large stretch of the area unsuitable for agriculture. Days are not far away when the local people would be forced to pay heavy price for this kind of exploitation of nature.

The reduction in the agricultural activities has resulted in the decline of animal power. The cattle population sent for grazing into the forest has also reduced. Farmers in these villages mostly maintain only productive cattle. Thanks to cattle improvement programme of the Animal Husbandry department, most of the productive cattle are the improved breeds and require stall feeding. Usually the unproductive cattle are sold to the traders who in turn sell them in neighbouring Kerala for slaughter. The elders of the villages recount the drastic reduction (almost 10 -15 times) in the cattle population over the period of 40 years. As the result the grazing pressure on the neighbouring forest has also considerably reduced. Few unproductive cattle of these villages and the cattle belonging to the Irular tribal community go to the forest for grazing.

According to the villagers the requirement of fuel wood collected from the forests also has in these days reduced as they have got access to diversified sources of fuel including the bio-gas and methane gas. Since the cattle are stall fed, the cow dung collected has become the major source of fuel. Under the present circumstances, the major cause for the degradation is the forest fire as perceived by the foresters and villagers. The appreciable aspect of the whole campaign is the systematic approach adopted by the forest department. Before launching the campaign, the department thoroughly studied the area and identified that the forest fire is single most important cause for the destruction of forest in this region.They had also come to the definite conclusion that except rare cases, almost all the fire incidence in this region are caused by human interventions. Though the location is highly vulnerable to catch fire, the factors promoting natural fire are seldom present here.

Through its initial survey, the department has also found out the types of human activities that causes forest fire.

The grazier and the wood collectors who regularly go to the forest, While smoking, unintentionally throw the burning buds inside the forests. When they fall on the dried leaves and the twigs, especially in summer seasons easily catch fire. This is found to be the one of the common causes. Such a casual practice but the destructive one also exist among the labourers who are engaged in large numbers by the contractors for the collection of NTFP’s during the seasons – the summer months starting from the January to April, potentially dangerous in the forest fire point of view.

There are certain locally famous temples and tourist spots inside the forests. Many tourists/local people visit the spots/temples on holidays and festivals. Many of them smoke and casually throw the burning buds inside the forest causing fire during the festivals, many of the neighbourhood communities/tribal communities visit the forest-temples to offer prayers. One of the common rituals is to cook rice with milk (locally known as Pongal) and offer it to God. Many times they do not properly put off the fire after cooking which spread fire in the forests when the wind blows. Such kinds of fire are very difficult to check.

The graziers are also reported to deliberately put fire in the forests in order to get good growth of grass in next seasons. The fire wood collectors do burn the trees to get charcoal. However these incidences are gradually reducing as the dependency of the neighbouring village communities on these products are becoming less. (The villagers almost deny the existence of such practices.)

The tribal Irular are found to deliberately put fire inside the forest to collect grass, dried fire wood, charcoal etc. on which their daily life depends. (This was also verified while talking to the Irular at Sadivayal near Siruvani foot hills. They completely depend on the forest for grazing their cattle and fire wood.They do not practice stall feeding and usually require 8-10 kg of fire wood per day per family for their own consumption. In addition they sell grass and fire wood outside.)

The tribals in this region are the major collectors of NTFP’s. They collect NTFPs for their own consumption and for sale. (They sell the NTFPs either directly in the open market or through the co-operative societies set up by the government depending upon the prevailing price.) They constitute the major junk of the labour force engaged by the private contractors (yearly leasing out by the Government thorough the auction) for the collection of NTFPs. The common complain is that these tribals put fire in order to clear off the forest floors so as to collect the NTFPs easily. (This was denied by the tribals while talking to them at their settlements.)

The entire Coimbatore forest division is infested by wild elephants. The villages bordering the reserve forests are the most affected. Crop damages by these wild elephants is very common, almost a daily affair. Local people adopt many methods to drive away the elephants including crackers and fire. Possibility of forest catching fire during this cooperation is not ruled out. (Now the use of crackers to drive the elephants away is prohibited in the villages adjoining the Range forests falling in Sirumugai and Mettupalayam ranges as it creates confusion the local police task force between the crackers and the gun fire of the Veerappan gang, the notorious poacher group.)

The illegal wood cutters and the poachers (the most notorious of the Veerappan gang) also to a large extent responsible for the forest fires.

Every one in the forest department, right from the guard to the Divisional Forest Officer and even above – has realised that these identified cause of fires can be checked only with the involvement of the local people. However, they did not directly approach the offenders as it was not feasible option. Past attempts to directly deal with these people have not been successful because these people could not identify themselves with the forest department.It is the traditional fear of uniform which has kept them away from the forest department. The change in the approach of the forest department has not yet been properly perceived by them. The best way to approach them is through the opinion leaders of the same village who have been regarded by these people. This is the well proven method of extension , and precisely adopted by the forest department. (Opinion leaders are undoubtedly proved to be more effective in communicating with local communities than the external extension/change agents due to their hemophillous character. The forest department, though not scientifically [socio-metric method], but almost accurately has identified the opinion makers in the villages and utilised their services through fire protection committees to educate the other local community including the offenders.)

Apart from this personal contact, this forest division under the guidance of the District Forest officer (Rajiv.K.Srivastava), has been trying various innovative campaign methods to motivate/inform people about forest fires. Their target group has included all the sections of the community right from school children. The good example is the Government Elementary school in Sirumugai.The head master of this school, also a member of the Lingapuram village FFPC, is impressed by the efforts of the forest department, and has taken extra interest to integrate the school activities of that forest department. The school with the walls bearing full of teachings on environment and forest resource conservation has created lasting impact on the minds of the young children and stands an ideal community education centre. On recommendation of the DFO, the head master Shri Ramaswamy got the state award for the best teacher in 1995.

Not only in Sirumugai, but in all villages, school children have shown significant awareness about the forest conservation efforts by the community and the forest department. This is due to the competitions held by the forest department among the school children and rewarding them in public meetings, involving children in social forestry and afforestation programmes, distribution of uniforms to the children and even conducting regular meetings of the FFCPS in the school premises also create awareness among the children.

The demonstrations conducted by the department staff to show to counteract the forest forests have became very popular as they were most effective means to learn the skill. (Demonstrations have been proved to be one of the most effective extension teaching method over the years among different kinds of population as it engages more number of senses simultaneously while learning taking place). Usually the demonstration are being conducted after the mass/group meetings in the villages. Many times villagers are also taken to the actual forest area prone to fire and demonstrations are shown, particularly how to create fire line and control the fires. such exercise have given them the idea how the human interventions cause major forest fires and dispelled their misconception that the forest fires were natural occurrences and cannot be prevented. Now the villagers even prepared to form a special task force to prevent and control forest fires comprising of village youths.

In addition to the mass meeting and demonstrations, the campaigns of the forest department include many innovative popularization methods like distribution of uniform with a message to prevent forest fire to school children, community feast oath taking to prevent forest fire at the village temple. Since it was realised that the villages in which protection committees were formed alone cannot prevent forest fires in isolation of neighbouring villages who also have equal access to the forests, it was felt necessary to spread the message to them also. The committees themselves had come up with innovative ideas like padayatras (long march) and human chain. Even in some villages like Lingapuram in Sirumugai range, the committee members were suggesting to take up a awareness campaign by autorikshaws when we had interaction with them.

The department, apart from personal and group contact methods, has also used mass media like radio and newspapers effectively for its campaign. These media are being used not only spread the messages on forest fire prevention but also to give wide publicity to the constructive/appreciable works carried out by the village forest fire protection committees. Such kind of publicity gives the committees immense pride and sense of achievement and thus acts as a motivating force for further action. It is also seen to be inducing a competitive spirit among the committees. The media message are being well supplemented by poster and leaflets/pamphlets. They serve to create further interest among the villagers who became aware about the forest fire prevention through the mass meeting and media. Sustained campaign actually creates immense desire among the community to participate in the task and ultimately leads them to conviction and action.

While promoting community action to prevent forest fires the forest departments strict action against the offenders is also being appreciated by the villagers. This is great attitudinal change among the villagers who are ready to support any legal actions such as fines and imprisonment of offenders, even if they are locals. In fact the huge fines inflicted upon the offender in Thadagam village of Periyanakampalayam range and Mangalapalayam of Boluvampatti range had created wide spread awareness among the villagers in those ranges. What could be learnt from this experience is that had the forest department taken only legal action against the offenders, as done during the past, it would have only recovered the hostile reaction from the local communities. But the educational campaign immediately following the imposition of fines, had in fact earned public support.

The forest department has come closer to the local community by taking up non-conventional but needful services such as conduction rural/tribal health camps, non-formal education providing facilities to local schools, prevention of school dropouts, organizing community sports and recreation activities, providing alternative energy/income generation activities and championing the community causes with other development departments/agencies. The forest guard no more just guards the forests but guards the whole community interests. He has become the real extension agent – friend, philosopher and guide to the local people.

Summary

Unnatural forest fire causes imbalance to the nature which reflects very badly on the bio-diversity and reduces floral and faunal wealth. Old traditional methods of preventing fire is not playing much role in front of the will to put fire. Forests in developing countries which are adjoining the habitat of rural masses the people are not aware of the importance of the forests. At this juncture, awareness alone can bring down the incidence of forest fire. During campaigning, it was found that people are totally unaware of biodiversity conservation concept. After awareness the committee which was formed has shown progressive result due to interaction between the staff, committee members and local people. Initial period of interaction, on the other hand, has often brought forward the individuals who had long term commitment to the cause.

This case study was documented by a team of scientists, from Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, India along with the then District Forest officer Mr. Rajiv K.Srivastava who launched the innovative scheme in the division.

 

Rajiv K. Srivastava
Deputy Conservator of Forests
Genetics Division
Bharathi Park Road
Coimbatore – 641 043
Tamil Nadu
INDIA

 

References

Ministry of Environment and Forests. 1987. Annual report of forest survey of India.
Ministry of Environment and Forests. 1988 OEF. National forest policy.
Champion, H.G., and S.K.Seth. 1968. A revised survey of forest types of India. Manager of publications.
Rodgers, W.A. 1985. The role of fire in the management of wildlife habitat – A review. Indian Forester Vol.112, No. 10, 145-157.
Saigal, P.M. 1989. A suggested classification of forest fires in India by types and causes. Paper presented at the National Seminar on Forest Fire Fighting, Kulamaru (Kerala), 2-3 November 1989.

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Country Notes
IFFN No. 21