Emissions from forest fires in India: an assessment based on modis fire and global land cover products

Abstract

Fires incur considerable economic losses and disturb the ecology, environment and livelihoods. Studies suggest that 90% of vegetation fires may be manmade in India and about 3.73 million hectare forest area is affected, leading to a loss of 4.40 billion annually. In the present study, MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro radiometer) data from Web Fire Mapper on active fire location for 20032010, burnt area product and land cover data at 1Km spatial resolution have been used to analyze spatial and inter annual variability. We have tried to relate vegetation fire incidences with emissions due to burning. Correspondence in the satellite detected burnt area product with the GLC 2000 land cover product has been used to identify the vulnerability of the forest types in India. Our estimate shows that tropical dry deciduous forest contributes maximum in CO2 emission, between a range of 49–90 Tg in the fire season (Feb –Jun) and corresponding fire counts ranging from 6000-13000 with substantial inter annual variation in the five years analysis. Variation in the fire induced emission is largely due to variability in climatic condition and length of burning period.