5,300 hectares of forest area in Maharashtra affected by fires in 2021: Data

This marks a 74% percent increase from the 3,056 hectares of forest land affected during the same period in 2020, the data showed.

At least 5,318 hectares of notified forest land in Maharashtra have been affected by wildfires between January and March this year, according to forest department data obtained by Hindustan Times. This marks a 74% percent increase from the 3,056 hectares of forest land affected during the same period in 2020, the data showed. However, fire counts (in protected areas) correspondingly went up by 16% this year, indicating significantly more intense incidents this year.

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Forest department officials attributed this trend to a warmer than usual summer season, which set in quickly and earlier than usual. One range forest officer in Gondia district, where three labourers lost their lives to a forest fire on Thursday, said, “The ground is very dry this year. Last year, there were some episodes of rain even in February and March which helped, but this year the fires are spreading extremely quickly.”

Yet another range officer in the Nagpur forest division claimed that community dependence on protected areas has also seen an uptick this year, with the pandemic forcing several people back to their villages. “There are more people engaged in foraging for non-timber forest produce, like tendu leaves and mahua flowers. Because there is more human activity, the fires are leaving behind a larger footprint,” the official said.

Nitin Kakodkar, principal chief conservator of forests, Maharashtra, agreed these are both likely explanations, and concurred that the ongoing fire season is markedly more intense than he has witnessed in recent years. “Another possibility is that because there were such few fires last year, largely due to intermittent rains, the current fuel load is more than usual. This gives fires more room to spread and do damage,” he said.

As per the data, Gadchiroli’s Sironcha forest division was the most affected, with 551 hectares of land coming under the influences of forest fires. The Nagpur forest division (under the Nagpur circle) and the Jalgaon forest division (under Dhule circle) also faced comparable losses, with 398 and 447 hectares of area lost to fire, respectively. The same figures for these divisions during January to March last year stood at 5 and 24 hectares respectively.

Similar upticks are seen across several forest divisions in Maharashtra this year, including Amravati, Buldhana, Melghat, Brahmapuri, Allapalli, Gondia, Nashik, Pusad, Gugamal, Sipna, Thane and the Tadoba Tiger Reserve buffer area.

The findings are in line with a Hindustan Times’ report from March 30, which analysed publicly available satellite data to demonstrate a consistent increase in fire counts across the state. The report also identified emerging fire hotspots, namely Thane, Raigad and Pune districts, which are not considered historically fire-prone.

However, the forest department’s own figures — which are confined only to legally notified forests — showed that the impact of fires remain largely confined to the state’s eastern districts. Notably this year, even areas like Melghat, where the fire department has seen relative success in mitigating the impact of forest fires in recent year, are once again seeing an uptick in the quantum of forest area affected by wildfires