In 3 days, over 7,800 forest fire hotspots spotted in India

PUNE: Blistering and unprecedented day temperatures in several parts of India could be sparking off forest fires in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and other states, data from the Forest Survey of India (FSI) showed.
In the last three days, FSI has spotted over 7,800 hotspots where forest fires started in various parts of the country, which could have been exacerbated by high day temperatures and heat waves that are sweeping the country, officials told TOI.

On Friday, 277 large fire events were reported. Some of these were in Maharashtra, including the Melghat tiger reserve circle in Amravati, and other forest locations in districts such as Nagpur, Wardha, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and Gondia.
Burnable wood, dry weather & a spark start blaze
Forest fires that have beenraging across India in the past three days could have a pattern like in the rest of the world__they can be bigger, more intense and last for a longer period.
In Pune district, Velhe, Paud and Junnar forest divisions were alerted to spots in their jurisdictions for small and large fires in the last three days, Forest Survey of India data showed.
An FSI official said, "The ongoing heat wave could have provided a trigger for such fires. For instance, the heat quotient in a region can go up due to various local factors, such as the presence of a solar plant. In such a case, the sun's rays reflecting off the plant during a high temperature period may push up the heat quotient of a place, sparking off a fire at a spot."
FSI has been alerting the forest departments in the affected states about fire incidents detected by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer sensor on-board Aqua and Terra Satellite of NASA as well as the SNPP-VIIRS (Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership-Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) sensor, at least six times in 24 hours.
The data accessed by TOI is based on fire incidences detected by SNPP-VIIRS.
Another FSI official said the forest fire danger rating index has heatwaves as one of the inputs.
"So when temperatures are high, the 'fire danger' rating will increase on the inde
Climate change expert Vimal Mishra, associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Gandhinagar, said, dry spells, low relative humidity, high temperatures, heat waves, and consequent low soil moisture are the primary triggers for forest fires.
"This is irrespective of whether the final trigger or fire source is natural or man-made. Fuel availability is amply provided by dry biomass like leaves, wood in the forests during such dry and high temperature spells," he added.
Mishra said that significant pre-monsoon rainfall deficiency this season has led to soaring temperatures and extremely dry soils in parts of India.
"The fire source in such a scenario could be natural or man-made. Natural friction due to wind movement or human fire source such as a lit match-stick, cigarette, fire sources from cooking etc. Normally, these man made sources would not trigger large fires, but when prevailing conditions that support a fire event already exist such as dry soil, low relative humidity, high temperatures/heat wave, such fires can spread to large areas of a forest," he added.