KOHIMA — A High-Level Committee
(HLC), under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, has approved
the Mitigation Scheme for Forest Fire Risk Management—to be implemented across
144 high-priority districts in 19 states, including Nagaland—at a total outlay
ofINR 818.92 crore, out of which central
share from NDMF & NDRF will be INR 690.63 crore.
The primary objective
of the scheme will be to implement a mitigation project for transforming the
forest fire management approach in the country so as to strengthen and support
vital forest fire prevention and mitigation activities.
The 19 selected states
are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal
Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Madhya
Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttarakhand.
They will submit their
respective proposals undertaking necessary activities for mitigation of forest
fires, preparedness for forest fire response as well as for post-fire
assessment and recovery.
In Nagaland, the number
of forest fires detected by Forest Survey of India using MODIS from November
2023 to June 2024 was 761.
The number of forest
fires detected by FSI using SNPP-VIIRS sensors from November 2023 to June 2024
was 2,609. This includes large, continuous and repeated forest fires.
About 3 % of Nagaland’s
total forest cover and scrub or 385.65 kilometres is “very highly fire prone”
while 22.80% of the total forest cover and scrub or 2,938 km is “highly fire
prone”.
