INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
KATHMANDU, MAY 4Prolonged drought conditions have resulted in frequent and severe fire events across the country.
Official booked for accumulating illegal assets
may increase risk of new infectious diseases
These fire occurrences have a colossal negative impact on human health and well-being, economic assets, biodiversity, atmosphere, and
climate, particularly in the post-2000 era.
For instance, in Marchand April 2021, the quality of air in Kathmandu was
unhealthy and occasionally hazardous due to fire events in different parts of Nepal.It is an arduous task to predict fire occurrences with
its lead time (about 1-2 months), which can help in taking appropriate, timely action to minimise the loss incurred due to forest fire
Scientists have been continuously working on fire prediction mechanisms by using the latest climate models
However, their efforts have not yielded much by way of results.Recently, a research led by Kalpana Hamal, Shankar Sharma, and a team
collaborated with the Central Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, Tribhuvan University, and studied the inter-annual variability of
spring fire focusing on southern Nepal from 2001 to 2020
They found the influence of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on fire variability
ENSO is one of the natural factors, and oscillation between its warm period (El Niño) and cold period (La Niña) can significantly cause
fire occurrences.Interestingly, the research found that high spring fire occurrences in southern Nepal during the El Niño years, which
created dry and warm conditions, were associated with suppressed westerly moisture transport and abnormal moisture divergence.Reduced spring
precipitation and an extremely high temperature enhance evapotranspiration from vegetation and provide more combustible fuels.The variations
in surface and atmospheric conditions during the El Niño event favours fire events and its spread in Nepal.A version of this article
appears in the print on May 05, 2022, of The Himalayan Times
This article first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com