Identification of Forest Fire Zone in Junnar Forest Division, Pune District of Maharashtra

The Junnar division is a critical area for forest fires every year. March, April and May are the three months when most forest fires occur. Most of these fires are artificial. Grazing, smoking and collecting firewood are some examples. Therefore, we must face all the problems of the environment, humans and pollution on a large scale. The amount of forest in this area has been greatly reduced due to the annual fires. Therefore, the people here must face natural and economic problems like tiger attacks, shortages of wood, heavy rains and heat. Forest area is 5319 sq. km. Present study therefore aims to monitor the conditions of the study area using GIS and remote sensing methods, to locate forest fire hotspots and to investigate the effects of these fires on both the environment and people using parameters such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, land use land cover, forest density distance from habitation, distance from road, slope and aspect map and elevation map. These thematic layers were weighted according to their importance and forest fire hotspots were identified. The total number of forest fire alerts is high. The final fire risk map created indicates that the low-risk area is 1848 sq. km. The moderate-risk area is 3372 sq. km. The high-risk area is 100 sq. km. Therefore, there is a need for proper management of forest fires. The proposed work focuses on assessing detailed processes such as forest fire impacts on the human living environment, using geospatial tools. Also, it is helpful for a sustainable environment in the study area.