India records over thousand forest fires in one week

With temperatures soaring above normal, India witnessed a whopping 1,156 forest fires during last week, pulling down the air quality index significantly.

Published: 22nd February 2023 08:20 AM  |   Last Updated: 22nd February 2023 01:00 PM   |  A+A-

forest fire

Image of a wildfire used for representational purpose (File Photo | EPS)

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: With temperatures soaring above normal, India witnessed a whopping 1,156 forest fires last week, pulling down the air quality index significantly. As many as 12 Indian states had significant forest fire incidents so far (see map).

According to NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System, the spatial resolution of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite satellite shows forest fire incidents across India, with high concentration in parts of South India, Odisha and the Northeast. Chances of fires originating from burning farm residue are remote since the rabi harvesting season is yet to start. 

Real-time data captured by NASA

“If you superimpose NASA’s images with that of the air quality index, you will can easily correlate the forest fires with the poor air quality,” says Chandra Bhushan, a Delhi-based environmentalist. According to Swiss firm IQAir, air quality in India at 9 pm on Tuesday fell into the severe to unhealthy category in cities like Delhi, Gandhinagar, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hosur and Mullanpur (see table).

ALSO READ | High chances of spurt in forest fire in 2023

High temperatures and extreme dryness create conditions for a natural fire. During the past week (13-20 Feb), maximum temperatures in the 35-390C range prevailed over Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Rajasthan and Goa and coastal Karnataka, which is 4-90C above normal. Temperatures are climbing by 5-90C above normal even in the North.

ALSO READ | As temperature rises, forest fire flares up across Odisha



Comments

Disclaimer : We respect your thoughts and views! But we need to be judicious while moderating your comments. All the comments will be moderated by the newindianexpress.com editorial. Abstain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks. Try to avoid outside hyperlinks inside the comment. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines.

The views expressed in comments published on newindianexpress.com are those of the comment writers alone. They do not represent the views or opinions of newindianexpress.com or its staff, nor do they represent the views or opinions of The New Indian Express Group, or any entity of, or affiliated with, The New Indian Express Group. newindianexpress.com reserves the right to take any or all comments down at any time.

flipboard facebook twitter whatsapp