In Context
- Recently, European countries like France, Greece, Portugal and Spain have been battling intense wildfires.
More about the news
- Europe is battling intense wildfires with thousands of hectares of forest land burned to the ground amid a searing heatwave.
- The blaze forced thousands from their homes and killed several emergency personnel.
- It is the second heatwave engulfing parts of southwest Europe in weeks.
Reasons behind these wildfires
- Wildfires require
- Right climatic conditions,
- Burnable fuel and
- A spark.
- Climatic Conditions in Europe:
- As for Europe, the region has been hit by an early fire season due to an unusually dry, hot spring that left the soil parched.
- Authorities attribute this to climate change.
- They add that the fires are being fanned by earlier-than-usual extreme temperatures and drought conditions in some parts.
- Burnable fuel:
- Rising temperatures suck moisture out of plants, creating an abundance of dry fuel.
- Drought and high heat can kill plants and dry out dead grass, and other material on the forest floor that fuels the fire once it starts sweeping through a patch.
- The spark:
- Spark is sometimes caused by lightning, at other times by accident or recklessness of the local population.
- A 2018 fire in California in the US, for instance, was started when a truck blew out its tire and its rim scraped the pavement, sending out sparks.
Impacts of wildfire
- Pollution:
- Air pollution caused by wildfires is more intense than other forms of air pollution, although it tends to occur over a shorter period of time.
- Wildfire smoke is a complex mixture of fine and coarse particulate matter and gases, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and air toxics.
- Health hazards:
- While fire poses a direct risk to people’s life and property, wildfire smoke, and particularly the concentration of PM 2.5, or particles smaller than 2.5 microns, can also affect the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
- For those already suffering from cardiovascular or respiratory illnesses, there is a risk of flare-ups.
- Wildlife:
- Wildfires destroy not only flora (tree, herbs, grassland, forbs, etc.) and their diversity but also have considerable long-term negative impact on fauna including wild endangered species.
- They impact the wildlife by burning eggs, killing young animals and driving the adult animals away from their habitat.
- Forests & Soil:
- Wildfires destroy the organic matter in the soil and expose the top layer to erosion.
- This also leads to the loss of crops.
- They damage the regeneration in the forests and their productivity.
- Wildfires destroy the organic matter in the soil and expose the top layer to erosion.
- Economic:
- Wildfires can disrupt transportation, communications, power and gas services, and water supply.
Prevention & Mitigation of wildfires
- Prevention:
- Forecasting fire-prone days using meteorological data.
- Clearing camping sites of dried biomass.
- Early burning of dry litter on the forest floor.
- Growing strips of fire-hardy plant species within the forest.
- Creating fire lines (strips in the forest kept clear of vegetation to prevent the fire from spreading) in the forests.
- Controlled burns are also used to prevent forest fires.
- A controlled burn is a wildfire that people set intentionally for a specific purpose.
- Well-thought-out and well-managed controlled burns can be incredibly beneficial for forest management because they can help stop an out-of-control wildfire.
- Mitigation:
- Early detection and quick action by fire-fighting squads are crucial.
- For such activities, the forest departments have a fire protection and fire control unit.
- The best way to control a forest fire is, therefore, to prevent it from spreading, which can be done by creating firebreaks in the shape of small clearings of ditches in the forests.
International Efforts
- The report, “Spreading like Wildfire: The Rising Threat of Extraordinary Landscape Fires”, prepared by the United Nations Environmental Programme, has sounded the alarm on wildfires.
- The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) – “Fire Ready Formula”
- UNEP recently called on global governments to adopt a new ‘Fire Ready Formula,’ as it warned that incidences of wildfires would rise in the future.
- The UNEP has called for strengthening international and regional cooperation on wildfires.
- Development of an international standard for wildfire management has also been recommended.
- UNEP recently called on global governments to adopt a new ‘Fire Ready Formula,’ as it warned that incidences of wildfires would rise in the future.
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Forest fires in India
Forest Fire Management Initiatives in India:
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Source: DTE
