Fighting Forest Fires In India: From Community Response To AI-Powered Detection

In the Almora district of Uttarakhand, this is the reality of about 300 locals who form the first line of defence against raging fires in the forests of Sitlakhet. The collective was formed to aid the Forest Department in the state and comprises mostly women from over 30 villages.

The job isn’t easy, but it’s necessary to act fast before a fire spreads. Gajendra Kumar Pathak, the coordinator of the Jungle Ke Dost (Friend of the Forest) collective explained to The Secretariat that there is a window to act on fires. He called it the golden hour. 

“If a fire is addressed in the first hour, the intensity and possibility of it becoming uncontrollable drastically diminishes. Fire travels upwards and on the hills the angle is about 70-80 degrees pushing fires to spread faster, especially if there are high winds,” he said. It is therefore local communities that can act the fastest and make up a rapid response team. 

Man-made, Recurring, And Avoidable

When thinking of forest fires in India, what comes to mind is trees spontaneously catching fire due to scorching temperatures. But, that isn’t exactly how it works.

According to a technical study by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), about 95 per cent of forest fire incidents in the country have an “anthropogenic origin”. Which means that they’ve been started by people. The origins can either be traced to negligence, malicious intent, or the inability to control a 'controlled' fire that was deliberately lit.

But, simply dropping a smouldering cigarette stub isn’t enough to cause hectares of forests to combust. A quick visit to 6th grade science shows that three things are needed to light a fire: oxygen, heat, and fuel.

Fuel isn’t just the trees themselves. Holding a lit match against a tree won’t make it burst into flames. It is biomass, a combination of dry leaves, grasses, and other organic materials that can easily ignite and sustain a fire once it starts, especially during arid weather, when moisture in the atmosphere is low.

Although most fires are ignited by humans, it’s these recurring conditions of hot, dry, and windy weather that enable India to have an entire “forest fire season”. In the case of Uttarakhand, shedding of flammable pine needles or pirul coincides with warmer temperatures, literally adding fuel to fire. Typically the season peaks twice, once before the monsoon between late February and early June and then post-monsoon, in November.

Forests sequester carbon. This means that they store a large amount of carbon dioxide. When forests catch fire, the carbon is released back into the atmosphere adding to global warming and creating a cycle of worsening conditions for forests and climate. In the face of climate change, an IIT Delhi research suggests that this period is bound to get longer and more severe.

Detection And Monitoring Aren’t the Problem

FSI operates the Van Agni Geoportal to identify forest fires. Through a collaboration with NASA and ISRO, it leverages data from two different types of satellite sensors—SNPP-VIIRS which identifies, alerts and tracks fire incidents in a range of 375m x 375m per pixel, and the older MODIS satelite with a range of 1km x 1km.

Both sensors are on polar orbiting satellites which means they pass over an area on Earth only twice a day. Only fire hotspots detected within the forest area demarcated by the FSI are considered forest fire incidents and are communicated as alerts.

While this monitoring system provides in-depth data it cannot be the primary source for detection owing to the limited frequency of satellite passes that cause a time lapse in detection and dissemination of alerts. Watch towers, ground-based sensors, and local reports are what make up early detection sources to act within the ‘golden hour’.

Across states, fires vary in intensity, duration, and hectares burnt, but the data for alerts is standardised across time and place. It can give a preliminary cumulative understanding of forest fires in India.

Vishal Singh, Executive Director of the Centre for Education Development Action and Research (CEDAR) said that although the problem isn’t about monitoring fires, but managing them, there is a dearth of data to understand why fires are ignited. “Most of our understanding on why a fire was ignited is anecdotal. Until we know the diagnosis, how can we prescribe the treatment?” he asks.

Current Response Needs Amends

A CEEW analysis determined that over 62 per cent of Indian states were vulnerable to high-intensity forest fire events. And yet every year some state or the other gets pulled up for lack of utilisation of funds for preventing and controlling forest fires, vacancies in forest departments and failure to provide necessary equipment for fire fighting.

Earlier this month the Supreme Court told Uttarakhand’s legal counsel that the state needs to take more proactive preventative measures. “Cloud seeding or depending on the rain god is not the answer.” the apex court said.

With forests spread over 38,000 square kilometres in Uttarakhand, FSI’s cadre of 4,000-5,000 Forest Inspectors, that make up the backbone of the organisation, fall short and need the help of the community to reach the fires in time. 

While Andhra Pradesh and Odisha have seen more large forest fires in 2024 than Uttarakhand, the Himalayan state has made headlines for its failure to control the fires. The state acts as a buffer between the Indo-Gangetic plains and and Himalayan glaciers and is ecologically fragile, causing concern.

The Way Forward

Most fires in Indian forests are surface fires i.e they burn along the ground consuming dry grass, leaves and downed wood. They are easier to extinguish than crown fires which spread through the canopies of trees. But, contrary to popular belief, water isn’t the counter to these fires. Preventative action is.

Complete suppression of forest fires instead of prevention and management is a colonial hangover. Singh says it is debatable whether we should focus on complete conservation through prevention of fires. “Fires can and have been tactfully used to fight fires. A small controlled fire can eliminate forest litter that could serve as fuel for larger fires in the future. Such large fires can consume complete forests,” he says.

The way forward, according to him, is for the government to provide incentives to local communities to prevent and fight forest fires instead of draconian policies penalising them.

Along the same lines Pathak, notes that many fires are caused by negligence when local communities practise the tradition of clearing their cropland with fire. The shrubs and residue are known as aun.

“By scheduling and systematising the tradition of burning aun, forest fires can be reduced. Communities should be encouraged and collaborated with to complete the process by March 31 before the weather gets hotter and winds pick up,” he says. He also suggests celebrating “Aun Divas” in every village on April 1st to foster discussions on the importance of forests in human life.

This initiative is part of what has been termed the Sitlakhet model. It is based on the collaboration between jan, which refers to people of the villages, especially women and youth, and tantra, referring to officials from the forest department.

Forests are an integral part of local women’s routine. They’re a source for bedding, fuelwood, and fodder. Like the Jungle Ke Dost initiative has connected them to taking forest protection into their own hands, women’s groups across the country can be formed, but they must be provided incentive and assistance in the form of monetary gain and equipment like protective gear, rakes, and water bottles.

Pathak says that these first responders are no less than soldiers. Except, “Soldiers have state-of-the-art technology, insurance, and support. Something these women don’t have yet.” Although they haven't received any support from the government, the Plus Approach Foundation has encouraged the model by providing participant women with awards, education, and financial assistance for marriages and houses.

Another tried and tested measure to minimise destruction from a blaze is building firelines—gaps in vegetation which halt the spread of fire. While there are kilometres of fire lines built across Uttarakhand since colonial times, they haven’t been maintained and are filled with biomass.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) and Head of Forest Forces (HoFF) of Odisha, Debidutta Biswal, told The Secretariat that most forest departments work in isolation, but after 2021 they have introduced district level fire action plans through which concerned line departments such as the fire brigade also become stakeholders.

In a pilot project, AI cameras have been installed in Similipal Tiger Reserve to monitor forest fires. “The camera itself can take images and process them with the help of AI and machine learning. This happens on an almost real-time basis so we don’t have to wait for satellite data which can take 6-8 hours. The most important thing in tackling forest fires is how quickly you get the data,”says Biswal. 

These cameras are installed on tall towers, have 360 degree high resolution vision, and are connected to 20 satellites. They are intelligent enough to distinguish between fires and bright lights. 

Although still one of the worst affected by forest fires, Odisha is one state that has consistently dropped its fire point to burned hectare ratio which simply means the damage per hectare caused by a single fire. 

As the first peak of forest fire season makes way for the monsoons, the national focus will inevitably shift to the challenges of the flood season. However, the respite, if any, is fleeting, for come November, the fires will once again assert their presence. The forests will burn once again.

It's imperative that policy interventions transcend seasonal urgency. Only through consistent, collaborative efforts in each state can we hope to safeguard our forests for generations to come.