New Delhi, Nov 13: Minister of State for Environment and Forests S. Regupathy will inaugurate a two-day National Workshop on Forest Fires here today.

The workshop is being organised by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The Centrally-sponsored schemes will be evaluated under Management of Forest Fires through the Involvement of Local Communities. This will also highlight non-availability of funds at beat level.

The workshop will enable participants from all over the country and government officials to interact with each other and get a detailed picture of the problems, non-availability of funds, different traditional and local managements to improve water retention, effect of fire on forest dynamics, fire identification using satellite imagery, application of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), ecological disastrous effects of forest fires besides other aspects.

There will be sessions on prevention, detection and monitoring of forest fires, fire suppression and management, ecological effects of forest fires, fire management in protected areas and fire monitoring proforma and data base development. Various papers will be presented during these sessions.

Principal Chief Conservators of Wild life and Chief Wildlife Wardens from states, organisations like Indian Council of Forestry, Research and Education (ICFRE), Dehradun, Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun, Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment ( ATREE), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) and officers from the ministry are participating in this workshop.

About 120 experts from the field of forest, environment, department of space are likely to attend this workshop. (ANI)