Riyaz Bhat
Srinagar, Jun 11 : With over 1,700 square kilometres already designated as a ‘High Risk’ zone for forest fires, Jammu and Kashmir over the past two weeks has recorded 172 forest fire alerts — the highest in the country during this period.
This figure, as per the officials, surpasses all previous records, making the region the most affected by forest fire alert incidents across the country.
The official figures accessed by the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) reveal that the total fire alert incidents include 159 SNPP and 13 MODIS incidents.
Soumi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) forest fire refers to the use of the SNPP-VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) satellite data to detect and monitor forest fires and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is a satellite instrument used by NASA for detecting forest fires.
The official figures reveal that the majority of the fire alert incidents have been reported from the Rajouri, Reasi and Kishtwar districts.
Pertinently, KNO last week reported that in Jammu and Kashmir at least 1,747 square kilometres of forest area have been categorized in ‘High Risk’ zone of forest fire while 62 square kilometres have been categorized in ‘Very High Risk’ zone.
The official document in this regard reveal that “62 square kilometres of forest area of Jammu and Kashmir is under High Risk’ zone of forest fire and 8,972 square kilometres of forest area lie under moderate risk zone and 10,606 square kilometres of area with low risk of forest fire respectively.”
The documents however state that 62 square kilometres of forest areas have been categorized in ‘Very High Risk’ zone in terms of catching forest fire while 33,237 square kilometres of forest areas of Jammu and Kashmir have been categorized as ‘No Risk’ zone.
It states that certain regions across India are more susceptible to forest fires due to factors like type of fuel load, local human activities, topographical features, forest type, and climatic conditions.
“In order to have a better and robust system for controlling and managing forest fires in a region, an effective fire risk zonation helps to delineate different risk areas for prioritizing management interventions in an effective manner,” it reads.
It also said that in Jammu and Kashmir, 79.01 percent of the detections fall under 19.74 percent of the Digitized Boundary Area—(KNO)
