Worst fires in Goa’s history burn down rare biodiversity

Panaji: Goa’s forests continued to burn for the sixth day on a trot scorching rare biodiversity as vast tracts of Western Ghats, one of the eight biodiversity hotspots of the world, remained ablaze in the worst ever fires that the state has witnessed in its history.
What makes the fires worst is the extent of area covered in a protected area, a proposed tiger reserve, a very ecologically sensitive zone, which is habitat for a wide number of endemic species, many of which are yet to be studied, said experts.
“All over the world, fires reported in evergreen forests are always manmade. Evergreen forests don’t catch fire because they are moist. People expanding their encroachments may have lit the fires,” said former principal chief conservator of forests Richard D’Souza.
Arvind Kumar Saran, a former scientist of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), said records even during the Portuguese era do not show evidence of forest fires of this extent ever having taken place in Goa.
“Never ever has such a forest fire taken place in Goa’s part of Western Ghats, even during Portuguese times. No evidence is found in any of the records or at least it has not been recorded. In fact, not just in Goa, this extent of fires have not been seen anywhere in the Western Ghats,” Saran said.
He said there are rivers, rivulets and other water bodies in the area where the fire took place, yet it is surprising the extent of area covered by the fires.
D’Souza said climate change cannot be the reason for fires being reported.
“Climate change will manifest in a different way like change in monsoon pattern, which is delay or gaps in rainfall etc. It will not lead to such fires. It has been this hot earlier too in Goa and at times even hotter than the present temperature, but fires of this scale have never been reported. You see for instance the fires being reported in private forests in Cortalim. You clear the forest then your project could get approval,” said D’Souza.
Saran also pointed to manmade ecological disaster and said when fire is lit artificially, it grows rapidly. “Otherwise, it will stop in some areas where the leaves have moisture. So many active fires shows that there appear to be different sources for the fire. If it is due to friction of dry wood etc, the fire will not have so many different sources,” said Saran.
He said the extent of damage to flora and fauna would be difficult to ascertain “because in the past we did not have the technology like drones, different balloons and crafts to study the intricate details of the forest and so it has not been recorded”.
Heat due to rise in temperature itself is not sufficient to cause such forest fires, said the scientist.
“Across the world, such largescale forest fires do happen in Australia and the US due to dry branches rubbing against each other due to high wind and then the forest fire builds up. In this season in Goa, moist air is available, though there is heat. Heat only is not the reason to cause forest fires. If you go through the moisture content over the last week, there has been considerable moisture in the atmosphere, which makes it very hard to believe fire took place naturally,” Saran said.
He said that whenever there is any civil engineering work planned near forests, there have been fires reported, to ease the work.
Former long-time director of the fire and emergency services Ashok Menon said in his 35 years of service, he had never come across forest fires of this magnitude.
“For the future, we need to gear up with the latest technology. I had collated data of 20 years and had approached Goa University to do hotspot mapping. With a university professor in-charge, we did all the groundwork and my vision was to mark areas where there is a pattern of fires, so we can take preventive steps. The files are with the directorate of fire and emergency services. Due to paucity of funds, the project could not go ahead. Now the government can focus on that, the data is already available with the government,” said Menon.
He said the forest department also needs to upgrade its technology and provide portable water tanks and smaller water pumping systems.
“They can procure smaller off-road response vehicles so they can do fire-fighting on their own,” Menon said.