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Understanding Forest Fire Patterns and Risk Assessment to Local Biodiversity of Selected Districts of Mizoram Using GIS and Remote Sensing

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Abstract

Globally,forest fire has been recognized as a major driver of forest degradation. Forest fires are considered to be a potential hazard with physical, biological, ecological and environmental consequences. In India, forest fires are the most significant, and a steadily increasing threat to ecosystem. Furthermore, fires are responsible for the loss of faunal as well as floral diversity in forested habitats. There is no detailed study available which provides an assessment of the impacts of forest fires on the faunal resources in Mizoram, India. Hence, an effort of about 131 transects/trails, 960 camera trap nights, 210 sapling plots during 2018–2021 have resulted in documentation of about 611 species of different groups viz., 418 arthropods (10 orders), 21 amphibia, 28 reptiles, 116 birds and 28 species of mammals in the sampled micro watersheds after stratification of the landscape using 5 × 5 km grids. In forest fire incidence dataof the last 20 years, indicates that the highest number of fire instances were recorded during the month of March in 2009 and the major fire season is of three months from February to April. About and 16.61% and 44.93% of the forested areas were classified as very high-risk zones and high-risk zones, respectively. Further faunal biodiversity richness analysis indicates significant overlap with high risk forest fire zones. We recommend long term monitoring the impacts of fires on different taxonomic groups and to effectively implement the forest fire control strategies in forest areas.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Forest and Environment Department, Government of Mizoram for granting research permission (No. A.33011/44/2017-CWLW/Vol.III/191 Dated 12.07.2018) and support during the field survey. We thank Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata for guidance and encouragement.We thank Dr. Kailash Chandra, former Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata for his guidance and encouragement. We acknowledge NMHS for their funding support under Grant No. NMHS/2017-18/MG44/28.

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  1. Zoological Survey of Indiaa, Prani Vigyan Bhawan, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700053, India

    Saurav Bhattacharjee, Tanoy Mukheerjee, Debaleena Chatterjee, Shahid Ahmad Dar, Ritam Dutta, Hemant Singh, Amira Sharief, Vineet Kumar, Bheem Dutt Joshi, Gopinath Maheswaran, Mukesh Thakur & Lalit Kumar Sharma

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  1. Saurav Bhattacharjee
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Contributions

SB, LKS, GM, MT conceptualized the study. SB, DC, RD conducted the field data collection. SB, TM, HS, RD, AS, VK, SAD data curation and analysis. SB, TM, BDJ, SAD, LKS prepared the first draft. SB, BDJ, LKS, AS, MT, GM edited and finalized the manuscript. LKS, GM overall supervision.

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Correspondence to Lalit Kumar Sharma.

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Bhattacharjee, S., Mukheerjee, T., Chatterjee, D. et al. Understanding Forest Fire Patterns and Risk Assessment to Local Biodiversity of Selected Districts of Mizoram Using GIS and Remote Sensing. Proc Zool Soc 76, 251–262 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12595-023-00480-7

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