It is often said that negligent smokers throw cigarette butts from their vehicles or otherwise to road side forest areas without extinguishing them properly. Can such an activity ignite forest fires, especially in fire prone forests during fire prone seasons.
Thanks Lary Rosenbloom
I wonder how they came to such conclusion. Let me try asking NJFFS whether they have the documents...
During the 1970s and 80s, almost every adult male in the Kumaon hills smoked cigarettes or biris. There would be a few small fires on our forest estate every year, usually on a ridge or resting place after a steep climb. Since the days were sunny, the culprit would usually be a passing villager, who squatted to rest and smoked a biri. They had a habit of discarding the butt of the biri by tapping off the coal at the end rather than stubbing it out. This coal would, it seems, ignite a fire.
In those days, someone would spot the smoke and word would get to us, we would ring the fire gongs and the village would collect and put the fire out. It is only post 1984 that the fire would be re-ignited again and again until the entire estate would be burnt.
Sometime in mid-2018, the Uttarakhand High Court was seeing a petition into these forest fires, and understood that most (over 90%) fires are man-made. However, there are no detailed forensics conducted in aftermath of these fires that could establish a cause or their origin. I wish there was.
Technically, all that is needed is the tiniest bit of burning material (firestarter), suitable winds and dry grasses/bushes/leaf litter. The firestarter could either be deliberately planted or accidentally find its way, as with unextinguished biris and cigarette butts or even firecrackers.
Being based in Nainital, over the course of these years, I've yet to encounter a single fire on my estate despite it having plenty of dry foliage and also being a regular village trail with people often smoking and discarding biris when passing. I would conjecture that it often takes effort to start a fire, and that hill fires are a deliberate old-world practice to claim greater space around the property.
Would also like to add that there's the human tendency to start a bonfire to keep comfy when "socialising" in the outdoors or during a roadside pitstop, which if not completely extinguished could turn into a big fire. I have seen both locals, tourists, and truck drivers upto this on more desolate stretches (outside villages, where there's a greater forest cover and hence burning material around).
"It seems..." because lacking any other source of fire on a clear, dry sunny day... however, while we are on the topic, a thing I have advocated since over 200 people were arrested for setting fires in Uttarakhand in 2016 is, why don't sociologists profile the people caught setting fire to forests and discover the reasons they do so? Then the root causes could be addressed....
I Melghat, when I questioned some tribals, I found these reasons:
1. Tribals go for defecation in the open (forest). Due to the fear of snakes and or any wild animal, they ignite fire. They will like to have a clear view of surrounding also.
2. Many think the thorny bushes are just overgrown (and useless). They should be burnt. And just ignite a fire.
3. As any Indian can tell, many people have habit of smoking during defecation, they throw the biri / cigarette butts in the bush. Then either intentionally or un-intentionally the butt may lit a fire.
4. Tribals go to collect Mahua (fruist of Madhuca indica) in Dry Deciduous Forests of Central India. Here, the Black Bears also come to feed on these fruits (which has high alcohol content, used to make local wine and also eaten). To make the Mahua fruits visible and easy to collect, the tribals ignite fire to burn the grass under these trees, which later spreads. Also, this is one of the reasons of regular attacks by bears on humans while collection Mahua.
I totally disagree on the theory that forest fires result from the friction of two tree trunks in summer. I want someone to demonstrate this and prove it. Otherwise it's a shit of a theory to protect some people.
Hi Raju,
working closely with the Cyprus Forest Department and the Israeli forestry service (KKL-JNF) the answer for me is a resounding YES!! There are too many incidents where discarded bits of cigarettes or other accessories are left either intentionally or out of negligence and which result in fires.
Hi Manoj
You could get a look on this https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/compass/2015/01/13/cigarettes-are-causing-fewer-wildfires-but-why/
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