Dr Monika Koul Moza
June 5, we celebrate the World Environment Day and pledge yet again, to have clean safe and healthy environment which is the elixir for human existence. The past decade witnessed a strange and unidimensional approach for environmental cleaning and security. Environmental scientists, policy makers, non-government organizations and citizen cooperative bodies all focused their attention on one single issue of climate change. People all over became so much obsessed with the phenomenon that Government money went to holding of seminars, conferences and meetings with the same set of ideas and recommendations without factual scientific analysis heaping dust on tables.
Many important and catastrophic environmental problems took a backk seat and went unnoticed even though these have been there. One such problem is that of forest fires. The forests of Indian subcontinent are very prone to these fires. These fires break out every year in the mountainous and hilly terrains all over the country. In North Indian hills, these fires are very common from April to June. Areas prone to forest fires range from 33% in some states to over 90% in others. The famous Trikuta Hills in Jammu and Kashmir, where the famous shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi is located encounters severe forest fires almost every year during summer season. Such fires are also common in upper hills of Uttrakhand and Rishikesh. These fires create havoc in the region causing enormous loss of natural and man- made resources.
The Government machinery is highly confused over the reasons of such frequent fires and hasn’t evolved any concrete strategy to cope up with the disaster. The blame game is on. The officials put blame on the anthropogenic problems and tourist negligence and callousness of local people. Public has a strong notion that there are no devices and equipments available with the government to sense and monitor such disasters. According to forest officials fires are creating many problems in almost all parts of the country and are more frequent during summer months when there is scarcity of water. But, why such devastating fires occur during this time of the year only is a question which needs an immediate answer. The forest officials are not ready to budge to the fact that the forest ecology is changing. Developmental and tourism related activities across these regions are increasing leading to disturbance of forest ecology. Increase in mean temperature every year on account of global warming, frequent lightning and thunder storms and erratic weather phenomenon, sparks from falling rocks and high speed winds are all collectively responsible for such disasters.
Another important fact which needs to be addressed this time is that this year the fire has not been the crown fire which sometimes plays a positive role in ecosystem dynamics. The fires this time are ground fires which have serious repercussions on the existing biodiversity of the region. These fires spread very fast, the intensity is very high and fires are ignited on the top of the slope and then spread downhill. Reports are already pointing that the loss of flora and fauna has been enormous. Such fires are commonly patchy and thus cause fragmentation of vegetation and hence enormous pressure on ecosystem dynamics and equilibrium. Assigning an economic value to this loss will create severe ripples.
The problem of environmental pollution is one serious fall out of these fires. Such fires result in formation of smog and therefore cause various health ailments. The overall ambiance and living conditions become miserable with people suffering from asthma, allergic bronchitis and associated problems.
So this June 5, the Government machinery needs to wake up and gear up to this environmental challenge and devise some concrete and scientific strategy to cope up with this catastrophe. New forest management practice needs to be devised with first understanding the causes of the phenomenon and then tackling the issues. Is someone listening there to have a Happy Environment Day?
(The author is Assistant Professor Hans Raj College University of Delhi)
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