Scientists call for rethink of India's British-era forest fire policies

The wildfire looked uncontrollable when Saptha Girish MK reached Bandipur National Park around 1:30 pm on February 23. “The flames were around 5 feet by then. We did not have adequate equipment,” he says. The 42-year-old, who works in the accountant general’s office in Bengaluru, had travelled to the tiger reserve with nine friends in response to the forest department’s call for volunteers to fight the blaze. The group worked continuously for the next four hours and managed to douse the fire in some areas by beating the flames with branches. But high winds reignited the fire around 8:30 pm. They left the next afternoon, having done whatever they could.

The forest fire that started at the national park, 220 km from Bengaluru, on February 21 was one of the worst the 87,400-hectare reserve has seen in recent years. It was finally put out on February 25, thanks to the efforts of over 500 firefighters, volunteers, forest officials and the Indian Air Force. By then, vast swathes of the park — home to a variety of flora and fauna — had been affected. Estimates vary from 4,400 hectares, according to National Remote Sensing Centre data, to 10,000 hectares, according to wildlife scientists studying satellite imagery. Karnataka’s Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Punati Sridhar told ET Magazine around 550 hectares would have been severely affected, though no animal deaths have been reported.

On Friday, the staff at the tiger reserve arrested two people for their alleged involvement in starting the fire, taking the total arrests to three. The two, who are cattle herders, reportedly confessed before a magistrate that they set fire to some bushes as the authorities had not allowed cattle to graze in the reserve and also as a retaliation to tigers killing cattle. Officials had suspected locals who had a grievance against the forest department had started the fire. Forest fires are not new in places like Bandipur. But this year’s blaze was widespread and prolonged. So why was the fire so intense this time? Raman Sukumar, professor at the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, says forest fires depend on a number of environmental factors such as the previous years’ rainfall, monsoon withdrawal, humidity and temperature during the fire season. “Last year, summer monsoon was copious, thus stimulating biomass production and providing a lot of fuel for the fire in Bandipur. Winter monsoon was deficient. The biomass began to dry up much earlier. Combined with the weather conditions over this region, the risk of fire was always high.” This accumulation of biomass, combined with high winds, whipped up the fire into a conflagration that was tough to tackle.

Scientists say another culprit was the unchecked growth of the Lantana camara plant, an invasive species native to Latin America, which has now spread to 60% of the reserve. “Dry deciduous forests and woodland savannas, like in parts of Bandipur, are not impenetrable. But as Lantana takes root, you get tall, dense and virtually impenetrable thorny thickets that can go on for hundreds of metres. When dry, this becomes a tinder box and can result in such fierce fires,” says wildlife biologist MD Madhusudan, who is also cofounder of Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysuru.

Wildlife scientists are now calling for a complete rethink on how India manages forest fires — currently a continuation of a British-era policy that involves quashing fire to safeguard timber. “I do not think the policy of managing our forests by suppressing fires is good or desirable. This has been the experience worldwide,” says Sukumar. He suggests a method called cool burn — controlled, early dry-season burning to reduce the risk of serious fires.

“We should rethink our policy of fire suppression,” says Jayashree Ratnam, a wildlife scientist with the National Centre for Biological Sciences. “All fires are not bad. In some ecosystems, such as the savannas, fires are an integral component.”

Causing forest fires is illegal under the Indian Forest Act of 1927 and the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972. This attitude in conservation that “all fire is bad” runs counter to India’s long tradition of controlled burning evolved over 50,000 years, according to Sukumar, Ratnam and others in a paper in the Economic and Political Weekly.

“When fires are suppressed, the grass biomass builds up. When a fire starts later, it becomes a high-intensity one,” explains Ratnam. “Controlled burns, preferably in the cool season, are probably an important management tool that should be considered.” The overgrowth of Lantana, which has replaced grassy undergrowth, complicates the condition in Bandipur. “We need to urgently research how Lantana impacts forest fires and then come up with appropriate control burning regimes.”

Local tribal communities in these regions, she says, are convinced that the imposition of fire suppression laws, which prevented them from doing cool season burns, correlate with the spread of Lantana. “So, ironically, suppression of fire appears to have allowed the weed to proliferate. Fire control has become difficult because the weed proliferation is so heavy.” The aftermath of the Bandipur fire might be a good time to revisit India’s traditional approach to forest conservation.