40% of Similipal biosphere reserve susceptible to forest fires

AS an unusually early summer has raised temperature by two to three degrees Celsius above average in Odisha fueling fears of forest fires, a new study revealed that 40.85 per cent of Similipal Biosphere Reserve is highly susceptible to forest fires.

- HEMANT KUMAR ROUT @Bhubaneswar

The study that assessed forest fire trends and susceptibility in Similipal from 2012 to 2023 using four machine learning models found that high susceptibility areas accounted for 23.08 pc of the area, moderate susceptibility zones covered 16.19 pc, while very high susceptibility areas comprised 18.23 pc.

Interestingly, very low and low susceptibility zones together represented 42.5 pc, indicating a large portion of the area is at relatively low fire risk.

The analysis identified 2021 as the peak year for fire incidents, with 94.72 pc of the fires occurring during March and April and March alone contributing 73.42 pc.