Kendrapada: Odisha recorded 20,973 forest fires between November 2023 and June 2024, compared to 33,461 between November 2022 and June 2023, Kirti Vardhan Singh, minister of state in the ministry of environment, forest and climate change told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
The state witnessed 22,014 forest fires from November 2021 to June 2022. Odisha also documented 51,968 forest fires between November 2020 and June 2021 and 10,602 forest fires were reported between November 2019 and June 2020, as revealed by the minister.
Responding to a question from Rajya Sabha member S Niranjan Reddy, the minister stated that forest fire incidents in the country are detected by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun, using satellite-mounted sensors.
According to the data received from the FSI, Dehradun, the total forest fire incidences detected in the last forest fire season — from November 2023 to June 2024 — were 2,03,544 in the country, which is less than the number of forest fire detections as 2,12,249 forest fires were reported in the previous forest fire season.
Seasonal forest fires occur every year due to various natural and anthropogenic reasons.