In the November 2023-June 2024 forest fire season, 67 per cent of major fires in India were extinguished within 24 hours, according to data from the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC). This marks an improvement from 33 per cent in the previous season, attributed to faster information dissemination and improved coordination among response teams.
In the 2023-24 forest fire season, the total number of fires detected by the Forest Survey of India was 2,03,544, while in the previous 2022-23 season the number stood at 2,12,249.
Uttarakhand, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh recorded the highest forest fire