Heatwave Sparks Forest Fires Across 12 States, Madhya Pradesh Worst Hit

Amid a continuing heatwave, large fires have burnt huge tracts of forest cover in more than 12 Indian states—from Uttarakhand in the north, Gujarat in the west, to Andhra Pradesh in the south.

Madhya Pradesh in central India is the worst-affected state, according to the government and remote sensing data.

While no human casualties have been reported due to the forest fires in April, they have resulted in the loss of wildlife and their natural habitat.

More than 634 "large fire" events were detected by overpassing satellites in Madhya Pradesh, 465 each in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, and over 400 in Andhra Pradesh. In the northeast, where forests are most fire-prone, 190 fires were reported in Assam, followed by 128 in Manipur.

The Forest Survey of India (FSI) defines "large forest fires" as those spanning at least three contiguous pixels detected by SNPP-VIIRS satellite sensors (375m x 375m pixel resolution), covering an estimated area of approximately 40 hectares or more.

According to the FSI data, at least 10 forest fires were detected burning on Thursday for more than three days continuously. Eight of these fires had been detected burning for five or more days.

Among the notable fires were those near the tourist destinations of Lansdowne, Ranikhet, and the Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand, Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, Seshachalam forests in Andhra Pradesh, and Baliguda Forest Division in Odisha.

In Uttarakhand, forest fire has affected at least 130 hectares of land. The blaze has also been reported along several stretches of the Char Dham pilgrimage route.

The central and southern parts of the country have been the worst-affected. As per the 2021 annual report of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Western Maharashtra, Southern Chhattisgarh, and areas of Telangana, along with central Odisha, are turning into "extremely prone" forest fire hotspots.

Meanwhile, the FSI data shows that almost half of India's forest areas are fire-prone.