Assessment of Forest Degradation
The statistics on forest fire damage are very poor in the country. In the
absence of proper data, it is difficult to arrive at the accurate losses from the
forest fires. Moreover, the losses from fires in respect of changes in biodiversity,
carbon sequestration capability, soil moisture and nutrient losses etc are very
significant from the point of view of ecological stability and environmental
conservation. To a certain extent, the loss due to forest fires can be estimated
based on the inventories made by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) as reported
in the state of forest report 1995 and subsequent field observations conducted
by them. The statistics of losses from forest fires from the various states of the
union is still very sketchy and fragmented. Much of the data available does not
reflect the ground situation and is grossly under reported. The total reported
loss from the states of the union is around US$ 7.5 million annually.
The Forest Survey of India data indicate 50% of the forest areas as fire
prone. This does not mean that country’s 50% area is affected by fires annually.
Very heavy, heavy and frequent forest fire damage are noticed only over 0.8%,
0.14% and 5.16% of the forest areas respectively. Thus, only 6.17% of the
forests are prone to severe fire damage. In absolute terms, out of the 63 million
ha of forests an area of around 3.73 million ha can be presumed to be affected
by fires annually. At this level the annual losses from forest fires in India for the
entire country can be moderately estimated at US$ 107 million. This estimate
does not include the loss suffered in the form of loss of biodiversity, nutrient
and soil moisture and other intangible benefits. Based on the UNDP project
evaluation report of 1987, if 40 million ha of forests are saved annually from
forest fires due to implementation of modern forest fire control methods, the
net amount saved at todays’ prices would come to be US$ 6.8 million.