By Sarah Hannan The Maragala Mountain Reserve suffered a loss of 500 acres of forest cover last July while another fire occurred on Thursday (29) evening in the same location. The Army intervened in dousing the fire as requested by the District Disaster Management Co-ordination Unit (DDMCU) of Monaragala. According to Monaragala DDMCU Assistant Director A.H. Raveendra Kumara, the fire gained ample fuel with the dry climate in the area. “The prevailing drought has caused a severe water shortage in the area and when forest fires occur, the groundwater too gets affected by it. Due to the fire that erupted on Thursday evening, the damage caused to the Maragala Mountain Reserve within a span of two months has increased. No damage was caused to private property or persons and our team was able to douse the fire effectively.” Fires of this nature might not always have an immediate impact on humans or their property. However, the constant fires that take place during the dry spell have a long-term effect on the ecosystem of these areas. Between 25 July and 25 August, nine forest fires were reported from the areas of Buttala, Monaragala, Karandugala, Balangoda, and Ella, and had destroyed an area of over 135 acres collectively, with the most extensive damage reported from the Balangoda Hagala Forest Reserve where 50 acres were destroyed. According to the Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ), most often, forest fires in Sri Lanka are caused due to the negligence of the people. While we may lack the necessary instruments, Global Forest Watch (GFW) is able to continuously generate images through Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to collect data from areas that are prone to fires. Furthermore, the GFW reports that forest fires in Sri Lanka have destroyed 830 hectares between 2011 and 2015. For the period between 25 July and 25 August, 947 fire alerts had been generated with over 100 alerts generated for the Anuradhapura (192), Monaragala (167), Ampara (146), Badulla (105), and Batticaloa (105) Districts. Hotline for forest fires Speaking to The Sunday Morning, CEJ Policy and Advocacy Campaign Officer Janaka Withanage stated: “Forest fires that occur here are most often manmade, and at present, we lack a monitoring mechanism to effectively mitigate these fire hazardous. However, in our capacity, we have established a hotline which people could use to alert us about forest fires that occur in Balangoda Range, Bibila Range, Haputale Range, and Badulla Range.” According to Withanage, the CEJ has established the Sri Lanka Forest Watch (SLFW) – a unit that works with the Forest Department and has a dedicated hotline to receive calls on forest fires. Once the SLFW is alerted about a forest fire, they are able to direct the area’s Forest Department to co-ordinate with the District Disaster Management Co-ordination Unit to douse the fire. “Our hotline, on average, receives about 60-70 calls per annum from the four mentioned areas, and we have observed that there is an increase in forest fires during the period of July-September. The most number of fires are reported from the Bibila Range, followed by Haputale, Badulla, and then, Balangoda.” When asked whether there are any awareness sessions conducted for the residents of the area in mitigating forest fires, Withanage stated: “We have appointed a forest protection committee in the perimeter villages of these areas. We periodically conduct meetings which involve the area residents, range officers, grama niladhari officers, and the Police.” Lack of basic equipment While the people have sufficient awareness regarding mitigating fires, the biggest issue the Forest Protection Committee faces is the lack of basic equipment to put out fires. Withanage said that some range offices do not even possess protective gear such as fire-resistant boots, fire extinguishers, and torches. But they somehow manage to douse fires before they spread to larger areas.   Apart from the awareness sessions, Sri Lanka Forest Watch in collaboration with the Forest Department has also taken measures to implement Forest Management Plans and is looking at introducing a mobile app that would allow the public to immediately share the location of a forest fire. The Sunday Morning contacted the Forest Department’s Conservator of Forest Protection and Law Enforcement Head S.E. Palamakumbura on the measures that are in place to reduce the forest fires that occur each year. “While we lack advanced instruments to monitor and fight forest fires, with our limited manpower and instruments we try to douse fires that erupt in these areas. There are high-risk areas in which annual fires occur and we continue to conduct awareness sessions for the residents that live in the borders of these forest reserves, school children, and government officials so they could assist the Forest Range Office of the area to mitigate fires.” Palamakumbura further stated that there is no advanced detection mechanism or monitoring system in place to identify fire prone areas; therefore, in all instances, the range office is always notified after a forest fire has started to spread in a considerable land area. “We are yet to achieve international standards in forest conservation, but our officers are at present doing their best to stop forest fires from spreading. In addition, in comparison to last year, the extent of damage caused by forest fires during this same period has reduced.” Meanwhile, the Disaster Management Centre, commenting on their responsibility towards reducing forest fires, stated that their responsibility is to minimise the damage any disaster could cause to humans, domestic and commercial property, and important infrastructure. “We are merely co-ordinating with the Police, Army, and Air Force and if required the Navy, in case of a manmade or natural disaster, to stop the incident from affecting areas with a dense population. In an event of a forest fire, the Forest Department or their area or district offices contact us. We then step into assist them with dousing the fire by relaying the information to the relevant stakeholders,” Disaster Management Centre Spokesperson Pradeep Kodippili informed. Penalties for fire starters Clause 6 of the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance prohibits burning, kindling, or carrying fire in strict natural reserves, national parks, nature reserves, and jungle corridors. If one does not abide by the Ordinance, he/she will be liable to a fine, imprisonment that could extend for six months, or both. Mitigation measures During last week’s forest fire in Ella, area residents suggested that if breaks were designed, they would be able to easily control the spread of fires. Firebreaks, fuel breaks, and green belts can be implemented in such areas at considerable intervals. Firebreaks are ideally created by reducing or removing the vegetation for a width of at least 20 m. This can then be used as an access road to the forest to douse fires. The breaks must be located at forest/urban interfaces or on ridges for better effectiveness, and can be built with bulldozers or by hand and should be able to allow transport and intervention of fire crews in case of fires. These areas should then be regularly maintained at one to four year intervals to control the growth of vegetation. Fuel breaks could be used to create a discontinuity of the vegetation cover, to decrease the fire intensity, and to allow direct access to fire crews. With a minimum width of 100 m, the purpose of breaks with a tree cover is to limit the spread of fire by reducing contact between plants, while creating horizontal discontinuity by separating trees by thinning, elimination of the understory by undergrowth clearing, and vertical discontinuity, and suppression of the interface crown/understory by pruning and undergrowth clearing. With a reduced tree cover density, vegetation re-growth is rapid. Therefore, the maintenance must be regular. Compartmentalisation is done with different intensities: A centre area being the privileged fuel treatment zone, the boundary area – contiguous with the centre area – which is simply a zone grazed by animals without special labour activities. It is a part of an improved forest fire control by fuel load reduction at the edges of the firebreak. The creation of spatial discontinuities can also be a result of agricultural land use, which, if they are regularly maintained, constitute obstacles for fire spread. The limits between agricultural land (slopes, ditches, etc.) must be cleared of undergrowth in order not to function as igniter cords allowing the fire passage.