A massive fire erupted near Kodaikanal hills in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu. A video of the forest fire was shared by news agency ANI.

#WATCH | Tamil Nadu: A forest fire breaks out near Kodaikanal hills in Dindigul district. pic.twitter.com/51NzxuUTMb

— ANI (@ANI) March 15, 2023

According to the Forest Survey of India (FSI), there were 391 active fire incidents reported across the country by noon on March 7.

Odisha had the highest number of active fire points, followed by Chhattisgarh with 58, Andhra Pradesh with 48, Telangana with 37, Jharkhand and Karnataka with 32 each, and Maharashtra with 15. Other states also reported forest fire incidents, but they were fewer in number.

Forest fires can occur naturally, such as from lightning strikes, or can be caused by human activity, such as throwing burnt stubs of cigarettes and bidis on dry leaves.

"A number of 52,785 forest fires were detected using MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer) sensor and 3,45,989 forest fires were detected using SNPP-VIIRS (Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership - Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite)in forest fire season from Nov 2020 to June 2021," the Forest Survey of India said.

Nearly 4 percent of the country’s forest cover is extremely prone to fire, whereas 6 percent of forest cover is found to be very highly fire-prone, the report said.

"Based on the forest inventory records, 54.40 percent of forests in India are exposed to occasional fires, 7.49 percent to moderately frequent fires and 2.40 percent to high incidence levels, while 35.71 percent of India’s forests have not yet been exposed to fires of any real significance," the FSI said.

First Published:Mar 15, 2023 11:29 AM IST