According to a 2019 report by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) which was based on a study carried out along forest fire points (FFP) identified across the country from 2004 to 2017, about 21.40% of forest cover of the country has been prone to fires. Among the total forest areas, the north eastern region in the country was found to be more vulnerable.
2019 Forest Survey of India report:
i.Fire prone areas: The extreme fire prone areas accounted for 3.89% of total forest cover, very highly fire prone areas accounted for 6.01% and highly fire prone areas for 11.50%. Thus together they make up the value of 21.40%.
ii.FFPs identified: The forest fire points (FFP) identified during the 13 years (2004-2017) were 2,77,758. These FFPs were identified using moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) on a 5 km x 5 km grid coverage.
iii.Highest fire alerted state: Mizoram topped among all the states with the highest number of fire alerts at 2,795.
iv.Forest alerts in central Indian states: Central Indian States also recorded a high number of forest fire alerts. These include Madhya Pradesh with for 2,723 alerts; Maharashtra 2,516; Odisha 2,213 and Chattisgarh 1,008 alerts.
v.Alerts issued: The total number of alerts issued in all the Indian states from November 2018 to June 2019 were 29,547. The 7 States of the north-eastern region accounted for a total of 10,210 fire alerts that resulted in 1/3rd of alerts in the country.
vi.Green cover: While overall green cover in the country has been increased, forest cover in the north east states such as Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland have decreased drastically. One of the major forest fires in the north-east were slash-and-burn cultivation which is commonly known as jhoom or jhum cultivation
About Forest Survey of India:
Headquarters- Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
Founded- 1 June 1981.
Preceded by- Pre-investment Survey of Forest Resources (PISFR) established in 1965
Director General(DG)- Dr. Subhash Ashutosh.
