FOREST FIRE AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT

A wild fire is an uncontrolled fire in a fuel vegetation area that occurs mostly in rural areas. Depending on the type of vegetation  present wild fire may be more specifically classified as brush fire,desert fire, wild fire, grass fire, forest fire, mountain fire vegetation fire or fine garden.
Many forest fire start from natural causes such as lightning which set trees on fire. However rain extinguishes such fire without causing much damage. High atmospheric temperature and dryness (low humidity) offer favorable circumstances for a fire to start.
Man made sources of fire like naked flame, cigarette or bidi, electronic spark or any source of ignition comes  into contact with inflammable, material.  
The youngest mountain range of Himalayas the most vulnerable stretches of the world's susceptible to forest fires. The forest of western are more frequently vulnerable to forest fire as compared to those in Eastern Himalayas. This is because forest of Eastern Himalayas grow in high rain density with large scale expansion of chirr(pine) forest in many areas of Himalayas the frequency and intensity of forest has increased. 
Forest fire are usually seasonal. The usually start in the dry season and can be prevented by adequate precautions. Successive five years plans have provided founds for forests fighting during the British period. Fire was prevented in the summer through removal of forest litter all along the forest boundary. This was called, " forest fire line" this line used to prevent fire breaking into the forest from one compartment to another. The collected litter was burnt in isolation. Generally the fire spreads only if there is continuous supply of fuel (dry vegetation) along its path . The best way to control a forest fire is therefore, to prevent it from  spreading which can be done by creating fire breaks in the shape of small clearing of ditches in the forest.
Fire are a major cause of forest degradation and have wide ranging adverse ecological, economic and social impact including :-
• loss of valuable timber resources. 
• Degradation of catchment ares.
• loss of biodiversity and extinction of plants and         animals. 
• loss of wild fire habitat and depletion of wild fire .
• loss of natural regeneration and reduction in forest    cover.
• Global warming. 
• loss of carbon sink resource and increase in percentage of Co2 in atmosphere. 
• Change in the microclimate of the area with     unhealthy living conditions. 
• Soil erosion affecting productivity of soils and     production. 
• Ozone layer depletion. 
• Health problems leading to diseases. 
 Loss of livelihood for tribal people and the rural poor as approximately 300 million people  are directly dependent upon collection of non-timber forest products from forest areas for their livelihood. 
The following are the important precautions against fire :-
• To keep the source of fire or source of ignition   separated from combustible and inflammable   material.
• To keep the source of fire under watch a d control. 
• Not allow combustible or inflammable material to pile up unnecessarily and to stock the same as per procedure recommended for safe storage of such combustible or inflammable material. 
• To adopt safe practices in areas near forests viz. factories, coal mills, oil stores, chemical plants and even in house hold kitchens. 
• To incorporate fire reducing and fire fighting techniques and equipment. 
Government steps  :-
• Setting up national institute of forest fire management with satellite center.
• Upload incident at INFFRAS (India forest fire response and assessment system.......between February & June).
• Volnerability mapping. 
•  Community led one panchayat. 
• Environmental education.