India shows the way in fighting forest fire

Madhya Pradesh’s success story has come as a blessing for 1 lakh protected forest areas around the globe, which now have a similar satellite-based fire-warning system, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Oct 8, 2008, 24:22:41 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Within hours of a fire in the forests of Sheopur in Madhya Pradesh this summer, the range officers were ready for action, thanks to a satellite-based warning system. Within two hours, they were on the spot, dousing the blaze. Without the warning, it would have taken them 12 hours to respond.

“Forest resources worth several crore of rupees were saved,” said a forest department official, who didn’t wish to be identified, said.

It wasn’t a one-off case. The forest department’s response time in 67 per cent of cases has been cut to less than two hours after the state installed the system in April last year.

Madhya Pradesh’s success story has come as a blessing for 1 lakh protected forest areas around the globe, which now have a similar satellite-based fire-warning system.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) on Monday launched a worldwide Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) developed by the University of Maryland and NASA.

The FIRMS processes remote-sensing data of active fire locations obtained through a satellite and sends short message service and email alerts from the nearest beat guard to the state’s chief conservator of forests.

With everyone in the loop, it leaves little room for laxity on part of the field staff. They have to report to the control room on the time taken to control the fire and also fill a questionnaire, which helps the system to analyse forest fires in region.

“This is really just the tip of the iceberg about the type of monitoring that is possible with these technologies that allow the linking of real-time satellite data with protected areas boundaries,” said Charles Besançon, head of the protected areas programme at UNEP-WCMC.

A moderate Forest Survey of India (FSI) estimate says timber worth Rs 35 crore is lost to fires in 63 million hectares of forests every day. But, if figures from a UN study in 1987 are calculated at present price, the annual loss could be around Rs 410 crore, environment ministry estimates say. The FSI data shows that half of India’s forests are fire-prone.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.