The regular forest fires have become a threat to the ecological system and environment
A fire has engulfed a vast expanse of forest area in West Bengal’s Purulia district since March 24, 2022, according to officials of the forest department. The blaze has spread rapidly in the forested areas of Joychandi, Garpanchakot, Bandoan, Baranti and Ayodhya hills, they added. Some of these areas are in the reserved forest category.
Forest fires in the region are not new — they were recorded in the months between spring and summer the last few years as well.
In these months, a heatwave sweeps the entire district, said experts. The regular forest fires have become a threat to the ecological system and environment of Purulia, they added.
Sheer negligence, ignorance in the community about this disaster and lack of strong measures by the state’s forest department to control the fire immediately are the main reasons for the fires, according to members of the community as well as environmental and tribal rights activists.
“In these months, villagers who collect Mahua flowers (a special kind of flower which blooms during this period and are used to produce country liquor) burn dry leaves which are piled under the trees throughout the year,” said Prashanta Rakhhit, director of the Paschimbanga Kheria Sabar Kalyan Samiti.
The flowers get hidden amid the leaves and to retrieve those flowers, the villagers take this easier step to burn the leaves, according to experts.
Rakhhit said:
It takes longer to clean the pile of leaves and then look for Mahua flowers. But the villagers forget that it’s never about only one tree — the leaves catch fire in a chain from under one tree to another, until no leaves are left.
Villagers who go into the forests for livelihood purposes or just to commute, often smoke ‘chuti’ (a local bidi made from tobacco leaves), he added. “They don’t put these out properly and this starts fires.”
The trees are extremely heated up in the scorching summer days and so, the possibility of them catching fire is higher.
Collecting Mahua flowers ensures a certain amount of one-time money: The locals fetch Rs 40,000 for one quintal of Mahua, said experts. This propels them to collect more flowers and burning the leaves is an easier way for them to do so.
Rakkhit’s organisation is trying to make the villagers aware of the problem. “I ask them if they do anything to put out the fire. They tell us that they don’t because the hills and the forests are quite far away from their homes.”
Awareness and poverty are linked, he added. “We understand that their hands are tied.”
Pashchimbanga Kheria Sabar Kalyan Samity is trying to spread awareness through postering. They are telling people that burning the leaves will help them collect Mahua, but there are dangerous fallouts such as burning of shorter trees, medicinal plants, insects and birds.
The whole ecosystem of the area gets affected, the organisation has been trying to tell the local villagers. Animals are afraid of fire, so elephants and tigers get scared and often run away and come to the villages.
The forest department is not very prompt to take initiative to spread awareness to stop forest fires or to take immediate steps to stop or control the fire, people complained.
Initiatives to make the villagers aware and take prompt actions to control the fire are going on. Prakriti Banchao O Adivasi Banchao Mancha, a local organisation working on environmental and tribal rights at Ayodhya, is also conducting a jungle seva padayatra (rally) to tell the villagers that if a forest fire spreads, they should come forward to put that out.
Through movement, this platform has built Gram Sabhas, which are taking part to control the fire.
Sourav Prakritibadi, an activist associated with the platform, denied that burning leaves under Mahua trees is a major reason for forest fires. “If that was the reason, then in Ayodhya or Shushunia there would not have been any forest left. Villages have been doing this for ages and they do it consciously.”
It is mainly the carelessness of the tourists and sometimes, the villagers, said experts. The mancha is doing the rally for days to make teams in each village consisting of five men and five women, so that they can monitor forests for fires and take actions to control.
Continuous campaigns have helped to raise awareness and this year the number of forest fires at Ayodhya is comparatively less, according to experts.
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