{"id":35251,"date":"2023-05-08T05:50:02","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T00:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=35251"},"modified":"2025-04-20T23:05:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T17:35:51","slug":"forest-fire-incidents-in-goa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/forest-fire-incidents-in-goa\/","title":{"rendered":"Forest Fire Incidents in Goa"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What are Forest Fires?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary Regarding Forest Fire Incidents in Goa<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the Goa forest department\u2019s inquiry report, 74 fire incidents were reported in the state in the first fortnight of March.<\/li>\n<li>The report suggests that <strong>a conducive environment and extreme weather conditions<\/strong> &#8211; deficient rainfall in the preceding season, unusually high temperatures, low moisture and humidity &#8211; led to the fires.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media\">\n<div data-oembed-url=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cZAXAzukiLE\">\n<div><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cZAXAzukiLE\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are Forest Fires?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Meaning:<\/strong> It is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Causes: <\/strong>These include natural (lightning, high atmospheric temperatures and low humidity (dryness) and man-made (agricultural practices like Jhum, a source of fire (cigarette, bidi, etc)].<\/li>\n<li><strong>Types of forest fire:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi-test.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/content\/ckeditor\/2023\/05\/09\/image-20230509110237-1.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Advantages: <\/strong>Helps in the evolution of forests, landscape and disease management, controls the growth of invasive species, etc.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Disadvantages:<\/strong> Can lead to permanent damage of\n<ul>\n<li>Biodiversity such as loss of flora, fauna, ecological services<\/li>\n<li>Economic stability of many communities that live in forests, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Vulnerable areas in India:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The forest fire season normally extends from <strong>November to June<\/strong> in India.<\/li>\n<li><strong>62<\/strong>% of Indian states are prone to high-intensity forest fires.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, MP,<\/strong> Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Telangana, and the Northeastern states are most prone to forest fires.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mizoram <\/strong>has seen the highest incidence of forest fires over the last two decades, and 95% of its districts are forest fire hotspots.<\/li>\n<li>There has been a <strong>10-fold increase<\/strong> in forest fire incidences in the last two decades, attributed both to <strong>climate change and man-made factors.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Forest fire mitigation measures:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It can be prevented through creating <strong>Forest Fire Line <\/strong>and removing forest litter all along the line.<\/li>\n<li>Creating <strong>firebreaks<\/strong> or ditches in the forests.<\/li>\n<li>The Forest Survey of India (FSI) is <strong>using satellite imaging technology<\/strong> (like MODIS) to analyse forest fire affected areas and boost prevention.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>News Summary Regarding Forest Fire Incidents in Goa:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>History of forest fires in Goa:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Minor surface fires <\/strong>that burn undergrowth and dead organic matter on the forest floor are common due to the<strong> slash-and-burn techniques<\/strong> used by villagers to clear grazing land for cattle.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cashew farmers<\/strong> often start minor constrained fires to clear weeds and reduce undergrowth.<\/li>\n<li>The India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021 published by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) classifies 100% of Goa\u2019s forest cover as \u201c<strong>less fire prone<\/strong>\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Connection between weather\/climate change and fires: <\/strong>Very little rain in Goa (since October last year), <strong>along with heat-wave-like conditions<\/strong> and low humidity, created conditions that were ripe for forest fires.<\/li>\n<li><strong>What are environmentalists claiming?<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Vested interests<\/strong> may have lit fires to reduce forest density and clear land for real estate development.<\/li>\n<li>Some of these fires occurred in areas where activists have been pushing for <strong>notifying Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary as a tiger reserve.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Villagers whose forest right claims are yet to be settled, have been <strong>involved in clearing forests to expand the area for horticulture.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What is the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>MODIS is a key instrument onboard the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra and Aqua platforms, designed to monitor the Earth&#8217;s atmosphere, ocean, and land surface with a set of visible, NIR, MIR, and thermal channels.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) Where is Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary located?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>This comparatively new sanctuary area in Goa is located in the Northern Part of the state, near the village of Valpoi. The sanctuary covers a vast area of 208 sq. km. and ensures the protection of the immense biodiversity found in the animal and plant life that resides in the Western Ghats.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-climate\/goa-forest-fires-in-march-2023-explained-8596719\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Why did Goa see a spate of forest fires in March?<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forest fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":35252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}