S Asia's 90 pc forest lost in fire is in India

New Delhi, Apr 23: Over 90 per cent of the forest area lost in fires every year in south Asia happens to be in India, says a survey of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The main cause of these incidents was ''escaped agricultural fires,'' as in south Asia, fire is a commonly used tool to clear land, said the survey which studied fire trends in East Asia, South Asia, South East Asia and Oceana.

The report was discussed at the 21st meeting of the Asia Pacific Forestry Commission held in Dehra Dun last week.

According to the report, which studied the period 1988--1992 and 2000---2004, the problem of fire is increasing in all the three sub-regions of the Asia-Pacific region.

The problem in Southeast Asia was that most forests were previoulsy considered sheltered from fires. However, the experience in the last two decades points to huge fires, mainly resulting from poor logging and agricultural practices.

Fires have caused massive problems in the region, affecting people's, health bendes and causing economic loss to tourism and transport industries.

In East Asia, wildfires increased in terms of scale, frequency, extent of damage and cost of fire suppression.

Factors contributing to this trend include increased periods of drought, increased climatic variability and increased pollution.

In Southeast Asia, wildfires dominated the headlines in 1990s when hot dry climatic conditions provided an enabling environment for thousands of uncontrolled fires to rage on for months, resulting in smoke pollution that caused serious economic and health damage.

The situation led to the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, signed by all ASEAN countries in 2002. However, Indonesia which has the most significant fire problem has not yet ratified the agreement.

The forest area destroyed by wildfires in 2000 was 71500 hectares in Austrlia, 9875 hectares in Southeast Asia, 8966 in East Asia and 4156 hecatres in South Asia.

In Oceana in Australia, the record fire season in 2002-03 was one of the largest disasters in the country's history, resulting in the loss of human life and massive economic damage.

Several fires were set by arsonists, and the combination of heat and drought wassuch that many of them could not be controlled for weeks.

Most of the statistics in the FAO report are based on the Global Resource Assessment(FRA) study.

In East Asia, the survey included China, Democratic Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia and Republic of Korea whie South Asia included Bangaladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

In southeast Asia, the report surveyed Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao, Malyasia, Myanmar, Philippnes, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Lestee, Viet Nam.

The Oceana included American Samoa, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Paua New Guinea and Solomon Islands among other Islands.

UNI