Forest is a complex ecological system in which trees are dominant life forms. The word ?Forest? is derived from the Latin word ?Foris?, meaning out-side, the reference apparently being to a village boundary or fence. Thus, originally, a ?Forest? must have included all uncultivated and uninhabited land. Today, a forest is any land managed for the diverse purposes of forestry, whether or not covered with trees, shrubs, climbers or such other vegetation. Technically, forest has come to be defined as an area set aside or maintained under vegetation for any indirect benefits, namely climate, protective or environmental or for production of wood and non-wood products. In legal sense, a forest can be defined as an area of land notified to be a forest under a forest law. On the other hand forestry concerns theory and practice of raising tree crops of forest and constitutes their creation, conservation and scientific management and the utilization of the resulting resources. The Forest Survey of India (FSI) has come out with the comprehensive picture of forest cover for all the states and regions. It has found the overall coverage of forest area for the whole country is 20.64 percent.. However, the country as a whole lacks quite a bit in terms of forest cover from the ideal situation (33.33%). When looked into the regional level, as expected wide variations is traced. At the macro level North-east as a whole has as much as 66.10 percent of forest cover. Fire is a basic component of nature. The word ?Fire? is derived from the Greek word ?Pyra? meaning lit-up embers. It is not exaggeration to say that fire and humanity coevolved. The ecology of fire on earth reflects our own existence, that is, its dynamics embody our knowledge or ignorance as well as our will and our capacity to choose. We cannot ignore fire, because no neutral position is possible. Fire can be used as an element for ecology or withheld effectively. We can not ignore our selves as fire agents. Our ancestors made a pact with the nature. We gained fire, which brought power, in return, we agreed to manage fire. We cannot put the fire aside just because we find its ecology complicated or its smoke annoying or it is legally vexing. Forest fire is sometimes desirable or detrimental in specific season to the ecosystem, but forest fire is used for different means and purposes by the human beings from time to time. It has been used for clearing the agricultural land, driving away the wild beast, for cooking, for heat, for light, pasture land or regeneration of floral and faunal habitation. The history of wild fire in different parts of North East India is long and varied. The present paper is a product of the study on different aspects of forest fire, its origin, desirability and more particularly its impact on the forest ecosystems in the long run with a global perspective in mind. However, the study takes due note on the anthropogenic nature of forest fire in the context of North East India which is also home to one of the most important bio-diversity hot spot. At the same time the process of modern developmental requirements are put against the back drop of the ecology of forest fire to understand and find out an optimal policy on forest fire management technique for the country in general and north east in particular.
