PANAJI
Goa has reported ten forest fire cases in the current year, with exact cause not known so far. The State forest department has spent almost Rs 35 lakhs on various mitigation measures to curb forest fires, until August, 2025.
The information was released by the Department on its website as per the directions issued by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The department said that a total ten forest fire cases have been reported in the State till August end, however, the exact cause of these fires is not known.
The Department said that following a series of fire incidents reported in 2023, a State Action Plan was put in place, which is acting as a guiding principle to deal with such fires.
The year 2023 saw, total 74 forest fires across 418 ha reported between March 5 and March 15. A government inquiry later found that 348 ha of the damaged area were within protected zones, reserved forest land and Goa Forest Development Corporation-leased area. Another 23 fires were reported between March 16 and April 28, 2023.
“A State level monitoring committee headed by Principle Chief Conservator of Forest periodically reviews the inter-departmental preparedness to manage forest fires,” the department said adding that all the field divisions of the department are equipped with required tools, machineries and well-trained manpower for containing forest fires.
According to a study undertaken by ICAR-Central Coastal Agriculture Research Institute as much as 38.90 per cent of Goa’s forest cover is “very highly” vulnerable to fires due to anthropogenic disturbances in the form of land use changes due to increasing demand for land parcels, conversions, infrastructure development among many others.
The department said that it is part of the near real time forest fire alert system of forest survey of India (FSI) to get regular fire alerts from the FSI indicating the action location of forest fire on near real time basis. “It helps the field staff to locate and reach to the fire spot within a short time and to douse it,” it said.
