Forest fires have emerged as a critical environmental challenge, with Meghalaya witnessing 6,451 Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) fire alerts, between March 7, 2021 and March 2, 2025. 57 high-confidence alerts are reported in 2025 alone as per global forest watch. From 2001 to 2023 Meghalaya lost 2.29 thousand hectares (kha) of tree cover due to fires, with an additional 229 kha lost to other causes. The worst year for fire-induced deforestation was 2010, when 226 kha of forest cover were lost, accounting for 3.4% of total tree cover loss that year. Fires have been responsible for approximately 0.99% of all tree cover loss in Meghalaya over the last two decades.
While climate change and rising temperatures contribute to the risk of forest fires, in Meghalaya, they are caused by humans, mainly for agricultural purposes, due to sheer negligence, or stoked deliberately. On the detection front, good news is that the Meghalaya Forest Fire Information System (MeFFIS) dashboard has been developed as a single-point source of information for the decision-makers to monitor and assess the real-time and past forest fires in the entire Meghalaya. However, many rural communities who depend on forests for livelihoods lack awareness about fire risks and mitigation.
As the fire and emergency services have been stretched thin due to the rising number of forest fires, on the other hand the beneficiaries of the Meghalaya’s Grassroot level Response towards Ecosystem Enhancement and Nurturing (GREEN) Meghalaya Scheme seems to have not undertaken forest fire prevention activities even as the scheme’s impact on forest conservation remains yet unknown.
So far the State has had no major incident of mortality in forest fire incidents and for this reason the authorities and the citizens have not taken a serious thought on the multiple adverse effects it has on soil. Forest fire can render forest useless because it can leave behind ash, making it unfit for any vegetation growth, soil quality and fertility decreases and stunted growth of trees.
While the State employs a multi-pronged strategy for forest fire prevention and management, including real-time satellite monitoring, community involvement through Village Forest Fire Control Committees (VFFCCs) and Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs), and technological interventions like UAVs, these approaches would escalate expenditure and would fail in address the repeated occurrence of harmful forest fires.
Current resources need to be redirected to support research that improves the understanding of fire causes and its effects and identifies existing management practices that predispose ecosystems to harmful fires.
The forest department needs to develop tactics to prevent recurring harmful fires that are on a repeat mode because the prohibitory orders by district magistrates seem to not have soaked in. Years after years these same orders are passed and have become as old as the forest fires themselves. Is it because of the limitation of law, or something to do with human emotions and behaviour that man-made laws are fragile?
