Natural or man-made? An uptick in forest fires confounds many in Goa

2 May 2023

Published by: https://indianexpress.com

INDIA – The fires had sparked not just ecological concerns but also political theories – Goa’s Forest Minister Vishwajit Rane had said that prima facie, they appeared to be “man-made” and “deliberate”

Unprecedented forest fires that raged across Goa in March appear to have been triggered by natural causes and a “conducive” environment – unusually high temperatures, low humidity, deficient rainfall and low moisture in the region – The Indian Express has learnt, based on an inquiry by the state’s forest department.

The fires had sparked not just ecological concerns but also political theories – Goa’s Forest Minister Vishwajit Rane had said that prima facie, they appeared to be “man-made” and “deliberate”. The minister had ordered an inquiry after fires raged in Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, and Opposition parties sought a high-level probe into whether the fires were natural or caused by human activity. Environmentalists, too, have suggested that the fires seem “man-made”.

The inquiry report, submitted by the Goa forest department to the government last week, stated that 74 fire incidents were reported in the state during the first fortnight of March on private land, reserve forests, comunidade land and protected areas. Out of the 74, 32 were reported in three wildlife sanctuaries.

According to the report, a total area of more than 418 hectares, including 320 hectares of forest land, was affected by the fires.

Navy and Air Force helicopters had conducted multiple sorties to douse the fires in inaccessible hilly areas, especially in Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, located in the northeastern part of the state, along the Karnataka border.

Sources said 34 FIRs have been lodged in connection with the forest fires under the Indian Forest Act, 1927, the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, the Goa, Daman and Diu Preservation of Trees Act, 1984 and under relevant IPC provisions. A majority of these cases have been registered against unknown persons, but in at least two cases, the accused were identified and arrested for arson, The Indian Express has learnt.

A forest department official said, “The probe found that the forest fires were triggered by natural conditions that came about due to a prolonged dry spell with very low rainfall in the state since October last year, along with high temperatures and low humidity. The fires were further aggravated by the presence of dry leaves in hill top areas and assisted by high winds.”

“A larger trend has been observed in the last few years in the state. In the years where rainfall in the preceding year was scant, a spike in forest fires was observed, while fewer forest fires were reported in the state when rainfall had been sufficient in the preceding year,” the official said.

It is possible that some of the fires that spread close to cashew plantations could have been the inadvertent result of farmers lighting fires, officials said. “But, the probe has found little evidence of people setting fires to claim land rights by saying the fire-ravaged area was cultivated by them, or for mining or any other purpose,” they added.

An uptick

In 2022, 15 minor forest fires were reported in Goa between March and May, and in 2021, 34 such fires were reported in a similar time period. These are surface fires, which burn undergrowth and dead material along the floor of the forest and are easier to control.

Officials said a similar trend of a spike in forest fires was observed in the peninsular region of the country, particularly in Kerala and Karnataka, between March 1 and 15 due to extreme temperatures and heat-wave conditions. “After March 15, fires started subsiding in Goa and all these states, too. Analysis shows that the conditions at the time were ripe for the fires to spread. Surface fires were reported in patches of deciduous forests and they were sporadic in Goa. By March 14, all the active fires were doused,” an official said.

Environmentalists said minor surface fires were common in Goa due to several reasons – villagers rearing cattle are known to practise slash and burn techniques to clear grazing land, cashew farmers often start minor constrained fires to clear weeds and reduce undergrowth, and fires could also start from a stray lit beedis or cigarettes.

However, the scale of the latest fires, with many raging simultaneously in multiple locations, has confounded conservationists. Some of them say that these fires, especially those that raged in the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, may have been caused by deliberate human activity to clear the land for vested interests.

Richard D’Souza, former principal chief conservator of forest in Goa, said that in his experience of over three decades, he had not seen fires of such scale in moist evergreen forests.

“In private areas, people may have purposely set fire to reduce the density of forest so a larger area is cleared, and they can then seek permits for any real estate activity on the cleared patch. In deep forests, there used to be a couple of showers earlier around November, which made the floor wet. This time, due to low rainfall, the forest floor was quite dry. So, one reason can be the weather, but such conditions have existed earlier too, and it has not led to such massive fires,” he said.

Rajendra Kerkar, a Goa-based environmentalist, alleged that villagers, whose forest right claims are yet to be settled, were involved in clearing forests through fires to claim more land for horticulture.

“Since 2019, incidents of forest fires have repeatedly taken place in Goa, but the forest department has not provided any direction for operational planning at the field level. It has also not allocated resources, or made training, monitoring and control programmes with the ultimate goal of reducing the risk of forest fires in Goa. In Sattari, horticultural land expansion by cutting down forests and burning dried vegetation is going on uncontrolled. The forest fires have caused irreparable losses to wildlife and ecology, especially in the Mhadei Wildlife sanctuary,” he said.

“It can affect the natural habitat of wildlife and also result in changing the micro-climate of the area and also cause soil erosion and intensify the gravity of landslides and flooding in the region,” he added.

A police officer from Valpoi said that in one of the cases of arson, a contractual teacher was arrested for setting fire to his cashew orchard in Copardem in Sattari taluka. “The accused had set fire to clear land for cashew farming, but he did not realise that the fire had gone out of control. When he saw the fire spread, he himself informed the forest ranger and was later arrested. He has been released on bail,” said the police officer.

Earlier this month, in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, had said that due to the recent forest fire incidents in Goa, an area of about 4.18 square kilometres had been affected, including 2.27 square kilometres of land in three wildlife sanctuaries. Choubey had said that the forest fires in Goa occurred largely due to “a dry spell, unprecedented high temperatures and low humidity”.

The India State of Forest Report 2021 puts the total recorded forest area (land recorded as forest in government records) in Goa at 1,271 square kilometres, which makes up 34.33% of the geographical area of the state. The same report puts Goa’s forest cover (all areas of more than one hectare that have a tree canopy density of more than 10%) at 2,244 square kilometres – more than 60.62% of the state’s geographical area.

WP-Backgrounds Lite by InoPlugs Web Design and Juwelier Schönmann 1010 Wien