Context: The Simlipal forest reserve area frequently witnesses forest fires during dry weather conditions. A fire which started in the biosphere reserve area in February and has been raging for nearly a week now, was finally brought under control.

What is the Simlipal Biosphere reserve?

• Similipal, which derives its name from ‘Simul’ (silk cotton) tree, is a national park and a tiger reserve situated in the northern part of Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district.
• Similipal and the adjoining areas, comprising 5,569 sq km, was declared a biosphere reserve by the Government of India on June 22, 1994, and lies in the eastern end of the eastern ghat.
• The identified species of fauna include 12 species of amphibians, 29 species of reptiles, 264 species of birds and 42 species of mammals, all of which collectively highlight the biodiversity richness of Similipal. Sal is a dominant tree species.

How intense was the fire?

• According to the Regional Conservator of Forests Simlipal, a total of 399 fire points have been identified in the fringe areas bordering the forest, close to the villages.
• All of them have been attended to, and the fire is now brought under control.

How fire prone is Simlipal forest?

• Generally, with the onset of summers and towards the end of autumn, the forest area remains vulnerable to forest fires.
• They are a recurrent annual phenomenon, but are also brought under control due to short span of precipitation. The months of January and February witness rainfall of 10.8 and 21 mm, respectively.
• This duration coincides with the shedding of deciduous forests in the forest areas. The fallen leaves are more vulnerable to catching fire and facilitate the spreading of these forest fires quickly over the entire forest area.

What causes the fire in Simlipal?

• Natural causes: lightening, soaring temperature, friction between dry leaves, etc. causes forest fires
• Anthropogenic causes:
• Poachers set a small patch of forest on fire to divert the wild animals which many times leads to such fires.
• Jungle areas are also set on fire by villagers to clear the dry leaves on the ground for easy collection of mahua flowers.
• Villagers burn patches of sal trees in the belief that it will lead to better growth when planted again.

How are these forest fires controlled and prevented?

• Forecasting fire-prone days and including community members to mitigate incidents of fire, creating fire lines, clearing sites of dried biomass, and crackdown on poachers are some of the methods to prevent fires.
• The forest fire lines which are strips kept clear of vegetation, help break the forest into compartments to prevent fires from spreading.
• This year, the forest department intensified its mitigation measures and formed a squad each for 21 ranges across the five divisions to closely monitor the situation. 1,000 personnel, 250 forest guards were pressed into action.
  Awareness programmes are also being initiated at a community level to prevent such incidents.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/simplipal-forest-fire-explained-7213375/

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