Forest Fires On The Rise In A Warming India: Make It Part Of Climate Policy

In the 405th report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, the demand for grants included a section on Forest Fire Prevention and Management. This must be welcomed given the growing forest fires in India, especially in the mountain states.

India’s forests are increasingly vulnerable due to rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, prolonged dry spells and extreme weather events. These are no longer abstract projections; they are now visible on the ground as devastating forest fires. Forests that were once naturally moist and resilient are now like tinderboxes.

Forest fires are now frequent and have a devastating impact on biodiversity, wildlife and the overall environment. Forests in Uttarakhand used to catch fire in the dry summer season every year, but now occur at other times as well. I have watched with despair fires as early as February and March, sometimes earlier. The forest department recorded over 60 fires in the February- March period, that scorched over 40 hectares of forest land. Repeated fires also weaken the regenerative capacity of forests, making them more vulnerable to future climate shocks.

Climate scientists have warned for decades if we can’t control global warming, wildfires will become more frequent and more intense. Now wildfires are becoming more and widespread, even in tropical rainforests, where they are not typical and are particularly damaging. Hotter, drier weather caused by climate change and poor land management create conditions for more frequent, larger and higher-intensity wildfires. In the heatwave of Summer 2026, large forest fires have become frequent, and have burnt large tracts in over 12 states — from Uttarakhand in the north, Gujarat in the west, to Andhra Pradesh in the south, with Madhya Pradesh being the worst-affected.

Focusing on the Himalayan belt, the standing committee recommended that the ministry develop a protocol to reduce and cope with forest fires using modern technologies, including satellites and drones for early detection and alerts, identifying the cause and nature of the fires, and the best way of dousing the flames. Even more welcome, the committee recommended adequate budgetary support to state governments to develop a proactive, AI and data-driven prevention and management approach to minimise ecological damage due to forest fires.

Traditional forest management systems are proving inadequate against the scale and speed of climate-driven fires. This is where Artificial Intelligence can become an important tool for timely action. Globally, AI is already being used for forest fire prediction and prevention. In California, the “Alert California” programme uses AI-enabled cameras and machine learning systems to identify smoke plumes in real time. The system can detect fires at a very early stage, often before they become visible to the local authorities. Early detection has significantly improved response time.

Australia is using AI models that combine satellite imagery, temperature, wind speed, humidity and vegetation dryness to predict fire-prone zones in advance. This allows authorities to deploy personnel and equipment strategically before fires break out.

In parts of Europe, drones equipped with thermal imaging sensors patrol vulnerable forests during peak fire seasons. These drones can identify abnormal heat signatures even at night and in inaccessible terrain. Canada has also begun integrating AI-based monitoring with indigenous land management knowledge to improve fire resilience.

India has the scientific and technological capability to develop similar systems. The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) already provides satellite-based forest fire alerts, but these remain largely reactive. AI can help shift the approach from reaction to early detection and prevention. At present the Isro model does fire detection and monitoring via satellite, this effectively detects and monitors forest fires in near real-time, improving identification speed and enabling better mapping of fire-prone areas. This system, however, has limitations, being primarily reactive. It lacks the capability to predict fire outbreaks and address underlying causes like dry conditions, human activity, and monoculture plantations.

The response capacity and the efficacy of alerts is exacerbated by the usually inadequate staff and resources of local forest departments. The satellite-based system has another limitation in fire detection because smaller fires under dense canopy or cloudy conditions can get missed. In order to achieve an effective early warning system, Isro needs to combine satellite data with weather forecasts, humidity levels, wind conditions, vegetation dryness indices, and include local community intelligence.

Countries having more effective management of forest fires use a multi-pronged approach, using drone surveillance, automated camera systems, and very importantly, the infrastructure to effectively record local responses . This integration of ground intelligence with satellite monitoring and AI-driven mapping of fire risks enables them to predict forest fires, not detect them after they have started burning.

India needs to up its act and improve its systems which should be easily done, given the solid foundation of Isro’s satellite proficiency. We need to integrate AI-based tools for predictive analytics and real-time ground integration. India’s system is technologically capable of detecting fires, but advanced global systems are increasingly focused on anticipating them before they become disasters. Involving forest-dwelling communities, drone surveillance, AI-based fire-risk prediction models, and stronger ground preparedness are crucial for a preventive approach to forest fire management. A national AI-driven Forest Fire Early Warning Grid should contain AI models predicting fire-prone districts weeks in advance, mobile alerts sent directly to village communities and forest guards and AI-generated evacuation and containment plans based on terrain and wind direction.

However, technology alone cannot protect forests. Indigenous and local communities possess deep ecological knowledge of forest behaviour, moisture cycles and safe fire practices. AI systems must work alongside community knowledge rather than replace it. We need to treat forest fire prevention as part of our climate adaptation strategy.

Investments in AI-based ecological monitoring today may prevent enormous ecological and economic losses tomorrow.

The Link to the article  - https://www.asianage.com/opinion/columnists/suman-sahai-forest-fires-on-the-rise-in-a-warming-india-make-it-part-of-climate-policy-1963375

‘Ghost Villages’ a Growing Threat in Uttarakhand & India’s Hill Areas | Asian Age

Recently, a tragic situation arose at a village in Uttarakhand’s villages are emptying out, with young people moving out for a variety of reasons, sometimes leaving elderly parents, and often just locking up their homes.

Forsaking the village has become common in Uttarakhand’s hill districts. The youth don’t want to continue with the traditional occupation of agriculture: it’s not remunerative enough. Thus, abandoned fields, collapsing cattle sheds and locked houses define areas that once sustained vibrant agrarian communities.

These “ghost villages” are described as a natural outcome of modernisation. But that’s a false narrative. Modernisation does not mean abandoning the traditional, rather improving and enhancing the traditional. That is where policymakers have failed. Little effort has been made in villages in hill areas, particularly in Uttarakhand, to diversify and develop the village economy, create good educational and health facilities and provide attractive jobs and income opportunities. It’s also the result of not investing in agriculture, which is the economy’s mainstay in these areas. The new element is the contribution of television and now social media, showing fantasy worlds. The triumph of illusion over reality creates a magnetic attraction for the younger generation. It’s not just farming (seen as backward anyway) and not paying enough, it’s the lure of city glamour that is drawing the youth there.

Today’s rural youth don’t migrate merely in search of jobs; they also migrate in search of a status they think rural life does not offer them. Urban life is projected as success. TV and social media relentlessly glorify consumption, leisure and spectacle. For young men, ogling fashionably dressed women holds a particular fascination. Farming, by contrast, is physically demanding, socially invisible, and economically unrewarding. Simply not “sexy” enough!

This cultural shift has had devastating consequences. Working on one’s own land, tending crops, or managing livestock is now seen by many young people as a lowly activity and a mark of failure, of non-achievement. The dignity historically associated with farming has been systematically eroded. The pride in being masters of your own land and the idea of caring for the land has been replaced by the desire for the “successful” urban lifestyle.

Young women’s aspirations reflect similar pressures. Rural women have always carried a disproportionate burden as unpaid labour: caring for livestock, collecting fodder, managing households and working in fields. These contributions remain invisible and unvalued. Many young women see village life as a trap, rather than a life within a community. Marriage increasingly becomes a route out of rural life, not a partnership to strengthen it. At the same time, young men aspire to urban-oriented partners, while rural women seek spouses with salaried jobs and city addresses.

Underlying this is the economic reality of farming. Agriculture no longer provides a reliable or adequate income. Rising input costs, volatile prices, lack of assured markets and weak institutional support have made farming unviable for small and marginal farmers. Governments have spoken endlessly about doubling farmers’ incomes, but that piece of propaganda blew up in no time, making farmers even more cynical about any government support.

Land ownership patterns add another layer of complexity. In many villages, land remains jointly held by extended families. Fragmentation, disputes and economic interest make sale or consolidation difficult. Families migrate but retain ownership, leaving land uncultivated. Terraces collapse, invasive species spread, and fragile hill ecosystems degrade. Social migration becomes ecological decline.

The irony is that the urban economy absorbing this migration is far less stable than it appears. Most rural youth do not enter secure, well-paid employment in the cities. They enter informal jobs with long hours, poor working conditions and no social security. Housing is expensive, public services are stretched and social isolation is common. Yet the illusion persists.

The cost of empty villages is far greater than the loss of a population. When villages die, food security weakens, agro-biodiversity erodes and traditional knowledge disappears. India’s resilience has always rested on its rural systems: diverse crops, local food cultures and decentralised livelihoods. So if villages continue to empty out, India will lose the foundations of self-reliance in food systems, ecological balance and social stability.

Yet reversing this trend requires more than emotional appeals. Farming must be made economically viable, socially respected and institutionally supported. Rural areas need education, healthcare, connectivity and opportunities for local enterprise. Most important, agriculture must be repositioned as skilled, modern and dignified work.

Let’s recall the most far-sighted and inspiring call to action made by Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1965: “Self-sufficiency in food to be no less important than an impregnable defence system in the preservation of our freedom and independence.” This was how the “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” slogan was born.

https://www.asianage.com/opinion/columnists/suman-sahai-ghost-villages-a-growing-threat-in-uttarakhand-indias-hill-areas-1942449

THE FRACTURED MOUNTAIN/ ATLEAST THE TEHRI DAM STILL STANDS

Suman Sahai

Many of us who live and work in Uttarakhand have seen this disaster coming. Environmental groups have tried, unsuccessfully, to warn of the coming tragedy but no one was listening. Iam not sure they are listening now either. Their eyes glazed over with the prospect of billions to be made from the rape of the Himalayas and the destruction of the livelihoods of the mountain people, the builders, contractors and their partners in crime in Dehradun and Delhi are not deterred by this blip of human and environmental catastrophe .

Those in Delhi can take solace in the fact that the Tehri dam , that swollen grenade waiting to burst its casing, is still standing. It may not be standing in its quiet corner for very long  in the youngest, most fragile mountain of the world,  if the  relentless assault on the Himalayas  continues. The fractured rocks of this young and still emerging mountain range, considered exceedingly fragile and unstable by geologists, will not be able to withstand  the instability caused by repeated blasting of the mountains to make roads, resorts and installations. The day the Tehri  dam collapses, the waters, it is anticipated, will reach Delhi, totally submerging Haridwar and Rishikesh  and sweeping aside everything  in its path.

A friend described a  trip to Uttarkashi  where they had gone to make a collection of botanical specimens last year . As they rattled along in their government issue jeep,  they heard a rumbling, then sounds like thunder claps and in seconds a river of rocks and stones poured down the hillside. They were in the way and it was because the driver practically  stood on the brakes that the jeep stopped a whisker short. What shook the travellers was the speed and velocity with which huge boulders and rocks came down. It was the speed with which the rocks and slush poured into Kedarnath this time  that left no time for escape.

 The contractor who had nearly killed this team of scientists came running to apologise.  He admitted that they would be blasting at several  sites and was shaken enough to confess that no safety norms were adhered to,  to cut costs. He added that by the time he had greased palms from top to bottom, to get the contract, his operating budget was considerably reduced and if he did not cut corners, he could not complete the work and make his (substantial) profit . We know this modus  from many other schemes and projects where bridges and houses collapse, roads get washed away and people lose their lives.  In this grotesque  business scheme where an unscrupulous nexus of the ungodly rake in milions , loss of human lives and property is par for the course.

Tubewells are being dug through the fragile geological layers in Uttarakhand  in perversely designed programs to provide drinking water. The current administration has refused to listen to geologists who have warned that fracturing layers of  rock , going down several hundred feet in this manner  was a recipe for disaster since the drilling would destabilize the formations and cause instability.

I am filled with apprehension  when I read that Rs 1000 crore have been allocated for the rehabilitation of Uttarakhand and appeals have been sent out in the name of the Chief minister’s Fund, the Prime Minister’s Fund  and so forth. The people of this country have begun to pour in contributions to help the people of Uttarakhand  rebuild their lives. On the other hand, speculation is already on about how much of the 1000 crore grant  will be siphoned off along the chain of bureaucrats , politicians and their partners in crime, with estimates  going  up to 800 to 900 crores!  Some fat cats are going to get fatter and the lives of the poor mountain people will not improve. Some roads  will be patched up to get washed away next monsoon, some families will get a tenth of their entitlement to rebuild  a room or two in their houses. Fake registers will be filled up to show relief materials have been delivered to ‘beneficiaries- that dreadful word. And the sleazy and powerful in India will continue to build empires on the misery  of the poor.