Melghat cell brings fire-hit areas down from 107 sqkm to 10 sqkm in 3 years

NAGPUR: Bringing down the area under forest fires from 10,764 hectares (107sqkm) to 1,000 hectares (10sqkm) in the last three years, the Melghat Tiger Reserve’s (MTR) fire cell in Amravati has become a role model for the forest department when it comes to controlling and monitoring forest fires.
MTR’s fire cell was set up in 2018 and is the first such cell in the state.The reserve also has the distinction of setting up a cyber crime cell. The cell has a dedicated staff comprising of a DFO, RFO and 10 forest guards.
Melghat expands over Amravati, Akola and Buldana districts and has five administrative forest divisions with Pandharkawda in Yavatmal being added this year. A report on the three-year fire monitoring in these areas was released on Thursday.
Before the cell started working, during the January-June 2018 fire season, in most vulnerable Sipna division, 4,838 hectare forest was gutted with 260 incidents, followed by burning of 2,221 hectare area through 220 cases in 2019. However, in 2020, 35 fire incidents were reported in which 169 hectare area only was devastated. Menacing fires drastically dropped at other divisions as well.
MTR APCCF & field director MS Reddy attributes the drop in fire incidents to real-time monitoring and quick response. “Melghat’s rugged terrain makes fighting forest fires a Herculean task. Controlling them is difficult as the location cannot be assessed. It is physically formidable to reach, but the fire cell made the job gradually easy,” said Reddy.
DFO Vishal Mali, the nodal officer of fire cell, said, “We get fire alerts from Forest Survey of India (FSI) and National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA). They share the location and maps in the form of latitude & longitude, which we put on forest maps to get the range, round and beat. This information was passed on by whatsapp to RFOs and the other field staff to respond quickly to the situation.”
About the preparation, Reddy said, “Even vehicles of RFOs were fitted with GPS and we used to track their vehicles to know the response time. The staff had undergone training last year at the ISRO office at Nagpur on how to download maps and images. We also deployed staff that was trained from Nagpur Fire College. Earlier, there was no such intensive monitoring.”
The lockdown reduced the number of fires. “To some extent, the less number of fire incidents was also due to the lockdown, but the role of the fire cell is vital. We also launched ‘Vanva Mukt Abhiyan’ in which villages were rewarded Rs1 lakh incentive for saving forest from fires. The money was used for village development,” said Reddy.
Mali said fire information alerts are almost near-time. It means that as soon as the satellite receives data, it is processed and sent to earth and later to user agencies within a short period of time, like 15 minutes. Even though it is impossible to contain the number of fire incidents due to diverse reasons and limited manpower, the area destroyed in the fire can be contained if doused beforehand with a quick response.
Dr Sivabala S, deputy conservator (DyCF), Sipna division, said, “In 2018, the percentage of forest fires was 29%. From 13.57% in 2019, we brought it down to just 1% by real-time monitoring. We also gave incentives to villagers for not letting forest fires spread.”
SETTING AN EXAMPLE
* Detecting location of fire in relation to forest boundaries like range, round, beat
* Swift movement of staff to the fire-spot by making quick availability of vehicle, fuel, blowers & waterman
* Maps to guide by showing compartments and roads on WhatsApp
Division 2018 2019 2020
Sipna 4838 2221 169
Gugamal 3055 1214 183
Akot 1260 1645 388
Akola 926 48 16
P’kawda 685 681 175
(Area burned in last 3 years)