Women shoulder the burden of expanding wildfires in rural India

In the Indian Western Himalayas, women are the frontline defenders against increasingly frequent forest fires, despite facing inadequate support. Swati Thapa, a contributor to Mongabay, reports that rural women in Uttarakhand, the most fire-prone state in India's Western Himalayas, bear the brunt of these blazes. Warming at high elevations surpasses global rates, thereby prolonging the wildfire season into winter and hinting at broader ecological shifts.

Over 71% of Uttarakhand's landscape is forested, providing vital resources like drinking water, firewood, and fodder for cattle. However, climate change exacerbates the fire risk while simultaneously impacting local agriculture. Consequently, men are migrating to cities for employment, leaving women in rural areas to shoulder farming, livestock management, and fire defense responsibilities.

Kavya Pandey, a researcher at the Centre for Wildlife Studies in Bengaluru, has extensively studied the connection between women in Uttarakhand and forest fires. Pandey explains that women traditionally collect firewood, often venturing into the forest for hours on end, making them the first responders when fires ignite. While men are occasionally hired as paid seasonal fire watchers, and authorities do call on women for assistance, they are rarely compensated for their efforts and do not receive protective gear.

Kamla Devi, head of the Marhmanley village van panchayat, a community-managed forest council, shares that when a woman spots a fire and lacks a phone, she signals the community by ululating or whistling, prompting an entire group of women to converge on the site to extinguish the flames.