Parliamentary Committee Urges Swift Approval for NDRF Teams to Combat Forest Fires

Urgent Need for NDRF Deployment in Forest Fire-Prone Areas

New Delhi, August 7 - A parliamentary committee has recommended that the government expedite the approval of a pending proposal to deploy National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh to tackle forest fires. This recommendation was presented in a report to the Rajya Sabha on Friday by the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, which noted that the proposal has been awaiting approval from the Ministry of Home Affairs since January 2025.

Currently, the NDRF has three officially sanctioned forest fire response teams dedicated to Assam, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, comprising a total of 150 personnel. The proposal includes the deployment of an additional team in Uttarakhand and two separate teams in Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Notably, in July 2022, the NDRF was assigned additional responsibilities to manage forest fires. The committee highlighted that teams of 50 personnel each from the NDRF's 1st, 10th, and 15th battalions have received specialized training in forest fire prevention at the Central Academy for State Forest Service.

However, during the forest fire season in Uttarakhand in 2024, the state's sole NDRF team struggled to manage the large-scale fire incidents. According to the committee, this led to the proposal for deploying three more teams to strengthen preparedness in the most vulnerable areas. The report observed significant fluctuations in the annual trend of forest fire incidents in the Indian Himalayan region from 2019-20 to 2023-24. The total number of fire incidents rose from 3,566 in 2019-20 to 30,672 in 2020-21.

In the subsequent years, the numbers began to decline, with 25,995 incidents recorded in 2021-22 and 8,682 in 2022-23. However, in 2023-24, the figures surged again, reaching a peak of 37,152 fire incidents during the evaluation period. The committee also recommended that the government initiate research studies to establish the connection between climate change and the frequency, intensity, and seasonal patterns of forest fires in the Indian Himalayan region.