Kamal Ghorui
Sunday and Monday were infernally hot. Indian cities took the top 95 positions for day temperatures. And the hills promised no respite. They were hot, too, and burning. Reports of forest fires from Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu made Page 1 yesterday. Nothing unusual there – it’s India’s annual 12-week wildfire season after all. But satellite images showed 13,771 large fires across Indian forests by Monday, which is more than the average for past 15 summers. And it fits into a global trend of worsening wildfire seasons.
Across the world, forest fires are starting earlier and lasting longer, for three main reasons. One, rising temperatures, especially at night; two, less rain; three, early melting of snow. In India, the snow factor only applies to northern mountains, but the other two are experienced everywhere. For example, while our attention is riveted to fires in scenic Kumaon and Nilgiris, Gujarat and Bihar have had the most forest fires in the past four weeks.
Now, forest fires are “normal”. They occurred before humans – friction caused by wind in dry weather, and lightning, caused massive fires. What’s abnormal about today’s fires is the warmer climate we have created, which makes starting and sustaining a fire easier. Studies show forest fires now burn twice as much tree cover as they did 20 years ago.
And they add even more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, making Earth toastier. While burning of fossil fuels releases 37bn tonnes of CO₂ annually, forest fires can add another 8bn tonnes, or 20% more. Plus, loss of trees reduces capacity to pull CO₂ out of the air. In 2024, the world lost 13.5mn hectares of forest cover – more than the area of Greece.
Long story short, to save forests, the world needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions fast. That means, burning less fossil fuels. Easier said than done when temperatures and incomes are rising. ACs account for about 7% of India’s power demand, when fewer than 10% of Indians use them. What will happen as AC and car ownership shoot up in the world’s largest population? It depends on our will to decarbonise.
On Saturday, when India’s energy demand made a new record, solar energy met 22% of it. We have enough installed capacity to raise this to 50% or even 60%. But the planet won’t cool in a day. We still have to fight forest fires with planning, community-based forest management, and remote sensing. There’s no substitute for boots on the ground.
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