'Chronic fires diminishing quality of our forests'

Jay Krushna Panigrahy, environmentalist and secretary of Orissa Environmental Society, a premier organization working for protection and conservation of natural resources and promoting sustainability for the last four decades since its inception in 1982 and a former member of the task force on forest fire spoke about the burning issue of forest fire in the state and its impact on the environment in an interview by Minati Singha.
Forests in general are under stress; why?
Forests have been the foremost victims to industrialization and development. Processes such as mining of minerals and fossil fuels, establishment of industries, expansion of agricultural lands, construction of railway lines and highways, forest fires, felling of trees and poaching of wild animals, grazing of cattle and presently global warming and climate change are gaining momentum, which have disastrous impacts on forests. Various anthropogenic activities and intervention in natural functioning of forest ecosystems are creating mounting pressure on them and the living beings inhabiting there. The quality of these natural habitats is declining fast.
Why have incidents of forest fires increased in the last few years?
Occurrences of forest fires are escalating in recent years, which are mostly human-induced, for activities like collection of mahua flowers, sal seeds and kendu leaves, poaching of wild animals, clearing of walking paths on forest floors covered by dry leaves and twigs, age-old slash and burn cultivation by tribals, personal grudge of some people against forest department, for regeneration of grasses on forest floor for grazing of cattle and from bidi and cigarette butts thrown on dry leaves, fire not extinguished by picnic parties, stubble burning in nearby fields, etc. Our forests being mostly dry deciduous type and presently the temperature soaring high, the fire spread far and wide with wind. For not having rains for a prolonged period adds fuel to the fire.
How serious are its impacts on the environment?
The forest fires have terrible long-term impacts on our environment. Forests are habitats to 80% of terrestrial species, regulating climatic processes, water cycle, oxygen cycle and ambient temperature and providing lots of goods and services to us. Chronic fires are diminishing the quality and impacting the biodiversity of forests to great extent, thus declining their productivity.
After Odisha topped in the incidents of forest fire in 2021, the Government of Odisha had formed a task force. What the task force did?
In 2021, Odisha topped in forest fire in the whole country, when the fire points reached the record number of 51,966 in the state. The government constituted a task force on forest fire, which investigated the causes and immediate containments of fire, suggested measures for augmentation of existing fire management protocols and improved community participation in it, post-assessment of loss in affected areas and recommended measures to improve the existing SOP for fire prevention and management.
Has all its recommendations implemented? If not, what are the challenges?
Implementation of the recommendations of the task force is the responsibility of the Forest Department. The current year is again witnessing forest fires in large numbers across the state. We need to have a strong political will to protect and conserve our forest resources for the posterity. Challenges will always be there, but we have to overcome them.
What measures would you like to suggest for prevention of forest fires?
Those involved are either ignorant about the consequences or have self-interest like animal poaching or may be playing mischief for some resentment against the forest department. The first approach for the department is to develop a strong network around the forest areas involving all the stakeholders - VSSs, EDCs, PROs, NGOs, students and local inhabitants for enhancing their awareness on the contribution of forests and to reduce the incidents of fire. The next is to strongly enforce the existing laws to apprehend the culprits putting fire maliciously in forests.
Elephant deaths are also a major concern for Odisha. Why can’t we protect these precious animals?
With forests shrinking at a faster rate the dietary, water and other requirements of elephants are not appropriately available in their habitats. Wildlife corridors are missing; this stimulates them to barge into crop fields and human habitations, resulting in man-elephant conflicts. As the intensity of the conflict is aggravating, both human and elephant casualties are on the rising trend. It’s our moral responsibility to take sincere initiatives for the protection and conservation of the keystone species of the forests, the largest land animal and the heritage animal of India since 2010.
Has environment and wildlife protection taken a backseat for the government and public as well?
The development mechanisms have been unsustainable till now, our priorities have been accumulation of materials, not the protection of environment and wildlife. A complete reversal in our mindset and behaviour is the need of the time that will ensure the quality of environment and the continuance of the living world. The transformations need to happen at all levels - from government to institutions and individuals.