Predictive technology helps Goa avert major fires in sanctuaries

Panaji: Goa’s wildlife sanctuaries saw no major fires this summer, forest officials said, crediting predictive technology, faster field response and stronger coordination among locals and officials.Forest Survey of India data on fires in Goa’s protected areas from 2006 to 2026 shows incidents were low and sporadic between 2006 and 2017, with 1–7 cases a year. Numbers rose sharply from 2019.“To strengthen early warnings, the forest department has signed an MoU with BITS Pilani,” said principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF), Kamal Datta, and added that researchers are helping deploy mathematical and GIS-based models to assess fire risk, track weather conditions and issue advance alerts.During the 2025–26 fire season, BITS Pilani shared experimental, sanctuary-wise fire risk outlooks with officials.BITS Goa climate scientist, Rajiv Kumar Chaturvedi, said the fire weather index (FWI)-based model forecast “no to low to moderate” risk across most of the season, mainly due to high humidity.Chaturvedi said the season supports the model’s usefulness, but warned that early warning alone is not enough.“Forest fires will still take place notwithstanding early warning alerts. The key to management lies in early detection of forest fire events. The current system of satellite-based forest fire alerts has its own share of limitations. Hence BITS Pilani, along with the forest department, is now looking at ways to improve the early detection part — which is currently a key technological bottleneck. We are at the initial stages of our research in this regard,” Chaturvedi said.Forest officials also stressed that technology must be matched by on-ground action. “Whatever technical achievement you have, somebody has to go to the ground,” PCCF Datta said.The department has increased fire watchers, patrols and quick response teams, and upgraded firefighting equipment.Datta said it has also set up taluka-level messaging groups linking forest officials with police, agriculture officials, panchayats, revenue authorities and local farmers, so a single alert triggers coordinated action.The protected areas covered include the Mollem, Bondla, Cotigao, Mhadei and Netravali wildlife sanctuaries. For Bondla, nearby reserved forest areas are also included.