FOREST FIRES: A CASE STUDY OF PALAMAU TIGER RESERVE IN BETLA NATIONAL PARK OF PALAMAU, JHARKHAND

摘要

Villagers, residing in vicinity of any forest area have direct relationship with the occurrence of fire and its control For active cooperation of peoples in sound management of Palamau Tiger Reserve (PTR), a rich biogeographic zone of Jharkhand, eco-development committees has been constituted to preserve and conserve unique biodiversity. In present study, the performance of eco-development committees (EDC) as well as non eco-development committees (Norr-EDC) in PTR and South Division has been workedout wim respect to occurrence, nature and damage caused by fire, Sixty villages were selected belonging 30 to EDC's and rest 30 to Non-BDC's. Two households have been selected from each village as respondents, Parameters such as type of forest fire, nature of forest fire, accumulation of slash material, fire behaviour of the protected area, purpose and type of deliberate forest fire, prevalent season and influence on target species has been collected, Most of the forest fire is deliberate in nature, whose magiitude is much higher than accidental type of forest fire, Surface fire is prevalent in the area followed by ground fire, Percentage of grass is found much more man the percentage of small and large timber,which constitutes fire environment. Collection of slash material is found considerable reduced by occurrence of fire. Side fire is prevalent in the area followed by head fire and base fire. The prevalent wind direction was noticed as northwesterly in theprotected area. Collection of Mahua flowers is found as the main cause of deliberate forest fire. Due to collection of Mahua flowers 20% patch fire has occurred, while massive grass growth resulted in occurrence of ground fire to the tune of 25% and 20%of bush fire. Most prevalent season for occurrence of fire is April to June. The intensive fire has showed considerable effect on the production of flower of Madhuca latifolia, resulting in failure of successful natural regeneration and seedling quality.