Forest Fires

🔹 About

1. Also called bush or vegetation fire or wildfire.

2. It can be described as any uncontrolled and non-prescribed combustion or burning of plants in a natural setting such as a forest, grassland, brush land or tundra, which consumes the natural fuels and spreads based on environmental conditions

3. Conditions: fuel, oxygen, and a heat source.

🔹 Causes

1. Natural Cause

2. Anthropological Cause

🔹 Impacts

1. adverse effects on the forest cover, soil, tree growth, vegetation, and the overall flora and fauna

2. destroys animal habitats

3. makes land unfit for any vegetation growth

4. Soil quality decreases

5. Soil moisture and fertility have reduced

6. Forests can shrink in size

🔹 Efforts

1. Since 2004, the FSI (Forest Survey of India) developed the Forest Fire Alert System to monitor forest fires in real time. 

2. National Action Plan on Forest Fires (NAPFF) 2018 and Forest Fire Prevention and Management Scheme.