Hyderabad: It’s not only industries and vehicles that emit carbon dioxide, but forest fires too contribute to the carbon footprint and impact climate change.
Scientists at the National Remote Sensing Centre, Balanagar, (NRSC) in Hyderabad, studied carbon emissions from forests, grasslands and protected areas in the country and found that in one year the total carbon dioxide emission from fires in forests was nearly 98.1 teragrams (one tg equals one trillion grams).
The study titled, ‘'Monitoring of fire incidences in vegetation types and Protected Areas of India: Implications on carbon emissions’, by NRSC scientist Dr C Sudhakar Reddy, was published in the Journal of Earth System Science in February 2017.
The study provides data on spatial and temporal patterns of fire incidences, burnt area and carbon emissions covering forest, shrub and grassland and Protected Areas like sanctuaries and national parks.
The research revealed the total area affected by fire in forests, shrubs and grasslands was around 48765.45 sq km, 6540.97 sq km and 1821.33 square kilometres, respectively, in 2014 using Resourcesat-2. The highest emissions were caused by dry deciduous forests followed by moist deciduous forests. The fire season occers in February, March, April and May in different parts.
Researchers also worked on monthly data of carbon dioxide emissions which increased from February to May, ranging from 2.26 teragrams to 33.53 teragrams. NRSC scientists analysed data from 641 protected areas for a decade and fire occurrences were reported in 281 of them.
In protected areas alone, around 16.78 teragrams of CO2 was detected in 2014.
Scientists have suggested that a strict fire management strategy be there in protected areas like wild life sanctuaries and national parks for mitigating climate change and for conserving bio-diversity.
Fire lines in forest to prevent spread
The forest department has begun creating fire lines in the forests to prevent the spread of wildfires within and outside the area.
Adilabad forest range officer Erla Aruna said that in order to create the fire lines, personnel burn dry branches and dry leaves. This creates a gap and most forest fires are stopped from spreading by fire lines. The fire lines were five metres wide on the forest boundaries and three metres inside.
The firebreak may occur naturally where there is a lack of vegetation or ‘fuel’ such as lake and river in the forests. Forest fires cause huge damage to the flora and fauna.
