Itwa fire, April 2026 Bansi, Itwa, Domariyaganj
The fire started on 5 April 2026 in Itwa, India, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 78,870 hectares from heat detections, spread across 8 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Uttar Pradesh since 2016 (of 30 with a page). Number 3 in India in 2026, of 65.
- Burnt area
- 78,870ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 18days
- 5 Apr 2026 – 22 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 8
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 5 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 3,401
- in a single hotspot: 148 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 18.5GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.6 mm on 29 Apr.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 14,433 ha in 2016, 19,044 ha in 2017, 28,281 ha in 2018, 37,818 ha in 2019, 2,201 ha in 2020, 20,781 ha in 2021, 30,571 ha in 2022, 25,842 ha in 2023, 22,791 ha in 2024, 10,250 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 66,658 ha that had burned before.
- 10,360 ha Itwa fire, April 2019 19,834 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,363 ha Itwa fire, April 2022 8,227 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,249 ha Itwa fire, April 2023 6,519 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,123 ha Bansi fire, April 2018 5,726 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,951 ha Bansi fire, April 2022 5,040 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,481 ha Itwa fire, April 2021 5,196 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,143 ha Itwa fire, April 2022 6,014 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
30,569 ha reached on 6 Apr46 %
-
Itwa where it started22,083 ha reached on 2 Apr39 %
-
13,777 ha reached on 6 Apr25 %
-
8,160 ha reached on 9 Apr17 %
-
2,632 ha reached on 10 Apr6.6 %
-
1,344 ha reached on 10 Apr6.0 %
-
373 ha reached on 9 Apr0.6 %
-
245 ha reached on 7 Apr0.4 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Apr | 35.5 °C | 25 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 3 Apr | 35.8 °C | 25 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 4 Apr | 35.3 °C | 28 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 5 Apr | 32.0 °C | 29 % | 57 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 6 Apr | 32.9 °C | 23 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 7 Apr | 33.1 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 8 Apr | 24.0 °C | 52 % | 41 km/h | 4.2 mm | Low 6 |
| 9 Apr | 29.8 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 10 Apr | 31.9 °C | 19 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 11 Apr | 32.9 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Apr | 36.2 °C | 17 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 13 Apr | 35.3 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 14 Apr | 36.9 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 15 Apr | 37.9 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 16 Apr | 37.5 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 17 Apr | 36.1 °C | 32 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 18 Apr | 39.1 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 19 Apr | 39.0 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 20 Apr | 40.2 °C | 12 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 21 Apr | 40.3 °C | 9 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 22 Apr | 39.9 °C | 13 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 23 Apr after | 40.0 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 24 Apr after | 40.2 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 25 Apr after | 37.9 °C | 32 % | 46 km/h | 1.7 mm | High 34 |
| 26 Apr after | 37.3 °C | 31 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 27 Apr after | 35.5 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 28 Apr after | 35.8 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 29 Apr after | 35.8 °C | 41 % | 39 km/h | 7.6 mm | Moderate 12 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 31 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 108 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 76: 5.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 3,401Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Itwa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 April 2026 and 22 April 2026: 18 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 78,870 hectares (788.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 8 municipalities: Bansi (30,569 ha, 46 %); Itwa (22,083 ha, 39 %); Domariyaganj (13,777 ha, 25 %); Mehdawal (8,160 ha, 17 %); Bhanpur (2,632 ha, 6.6 %); Rudhauli (1,344 ha, 6.0 %); Naugarh (373 ha, 0.6 %); Shohratgarh (245 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of India (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Emergency number: 112
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.