On Fire

Burning mountains and Standstill forests

The cloudless, warm days and moderately cool nights are the perfect recipe for drying out the montane shola grasslands of the Western Ghats. The lush green grasses slowly turn light brown and set seeds.

Dry grassland atop a mountain

In these conditions, a small spark of fire is enough to set the entire mountain ablaze. During the day, the fire appears as distant smoke, clearly differentiated from the clouds and mist.

Dry grass on the foreground hill, a burnt grassland on the left, and a burning hill with smoke on the right.

As the sun sets, the lines of fire become visible, slowly moving across the mountain, consuming grasses in its path.

Lines of fire

These lines can break into multiple chains depending on the availability of fuel. Sometimes, sparks can fly with the wind and ignite distant grasses.

Two lines of fire with multiple small patches of flames in between.

These fires, combined with smoke, can create a silhouette of the mountain terrain, revealing its layers.

The Recovery

Once ignited, the fires will not stop until they have consumed all available dry grass, turning it to char. The fires are limited by the green patches of forests and any water bodies, typically not raging for more than half a day.

Burnt mountain on the left, unburnt on the right. Notice that the shola forests remain unharmed and green.

The fires usually stop at the boundary of the shola forests, where the still-green plants resist the fire and prevent its further spread.

Burnt grass and unburnt, green shola forest. The grassland in the previous layer remains intact.

Several grassland species appear to have adapted to fire events, making them resilient and unaffected by the fires.

A plant amidst the dark grass char

The grasses also recover quickly, fueled by the availability of morning dew. They fully recover once the summer rains begin.

Grass recovering after fire. The fire was some three days ago.

The rate of recovery can vary between species, which may lead to certain species gaining an upper hand in the ecosystem.

A fern recovering from the fire. Notice that the recovery of surrounding grass patches is slower.

Causes and Effects

Most of the fires in the Western Ghats are anthropogenic (human-induced), primarily caused by:

• Cattle grazing, to ensure a supply of fresh grass for livestock

• Control of insect and reptile populations

• Preventing fuel buildup

• Accidental fires spreading from nearby agricultural plots that use fire to clear weeds

Fires are common across all regions of Karnataka where shola grasslands are found. The photos of the fire and burnt mountain in this article were taken in the Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, and Kodagu districts.

Burnt patches of grassland during February and March. Data from Sentinel Satellite.

While fires leave the evergreen forests unharmed, their effects are more pronounced in the deciduous forests in the interior. There have been incidents of large forest fires causing harm to both wildlife and human properties.

While the existence of the grassland-forest complex, or shola, is believed to predate human evolution and settlement, there are arguments that the occasional fires help control the progression of the forest. They achieve this by burning younger seedlings at the forest boundary, while keeping those inside the forest intact.

The fires cause temporary air pollution and reduced visibility, especially if the affected area is large. Repeated fires in the same region can lead to irreparable damage to grassland species and cause soil erosion. Therefore, it is important to understand tribal practices, view them through the lens of science, and respect them.

Smoke and fire caused by nearby fires

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Related

Following is a post from 2022 where I explored several aspects of such fires.

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