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Rajim fire, December 2025 Rajim, Chhura, Magarlod

Out · last detection 30 Dec 2025, 07:39 UTC

The fire started on 2 December 2025 in Rajim, India, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,756 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Chhattīsgarh since 2016 (of 36 with a page). Number 7 in India in 2025, of 30.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Magarlod · 2025

Burnt area
16,756ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
29days
2 Dec 2025 – 30 Dec 2025
Municipalities hit
4
subdistricts
Started on
2 Dec
2025
Heat detections
568
in a single hotspot: 120 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
168MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Dec30 Dec
30 Dec 2025

How it evolved, day by day

2 Dec 2025 · 2 MW · 1 3 Dec 2025 · 7 MW · 2 5 Dec 2025 · 6 MW · 1 6 Dec 2025 · 16 MW · 3 7 Dec 2025 · 23 MW · 4 8 Dec 2025 · 18 MW · 2 9 Dec 2025 · 498 MW · 38 10 Dec 2025 · 214 MW · 16 11 Dec 2025 · 427 MW · 48 12 Dec 2025 · 867 MW · 58 13 Dec 2025 · 899 MW · 99 14 Dec 2025 · 302 MW · 53 15 Dec 2025 · 275 MW · 41 16 Dec 2025 · 183 MW · 36 17 Dec 2025 · 283 MW · 40 18 Dec 2025 · 213 MW · 32 19 Dec 2025 · 124 MW · 27 20 Dec 2025 · 125 MW · 18 21 Dec 2025 · 45 MW · 9 22 Dec 2025 · 3 MW · 1 23 Dec 2025 · 23 MW · 8 24 Dec 2025 · 55 MW · 9 25 Dec 2025 · 13 MW · 4 26 Dec 2025 · 16 MW · 4 27 Dec 2025 · 37 MW · 6 28 Dec 2025 · 34 MW · 3 29 Dec 2025 · 4 MW · 2 30 Dec 2025 · 8 MW · 3
2 Dec 7 Dec 11 Dec 13 Dec 15 Dec 19 Dec 23 Dec 27 Dec

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

28°high
28km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,601 ha in 2016, 9,757 ha in 2017, 4,445 ha in 2018, 5,386 ha in 2019, 8,011 ha in 2020, 9,407 ha in 2021, 4,717 ha in 2022, 15,084 ha in 2023, 11,216 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,559 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 11% of the area of London (168 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Rajim where it started
    16,276 ha reached on 2 Dec
    27 %
  2. Chhura
    427 ha reached on 13 Dec
    0.4 %
  3. Magarlod
    88 ha reached on 9 Dec
    0.1 %
  4. Abhanpur
    46 ha reached on 7 Dec
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area166 ha
Residents≈ 45,000

Inside the perimeter there were about 166 hectares of built-up land and about 45,000 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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 Dec 26.3 °C 47 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
3 Dec 26.7 °C 44 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
4 Dec 26.5 °C 41 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
5 Dec 26.1 °C 42 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
6 Dec 25.9 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
7 Dec 27.1 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
8 Dec 27.4 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
9 Dec 27.4 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
10 Dec 26.9 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
11 Dec 26.9 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
12 Dec 27.0 °C 31 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
13 Dec 26.7 °C 34 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
14 Dec 26.6 °C 36 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Dec 26.5 °C 41 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Dec 26.4 °C 40 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
17 Dec 27.6 °C 40 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
18 Dec 26.6 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Dec 24.9 °C 41 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
20 Dec 25.1 °C 38 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
21 Dec 25.3 °C 35 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
22 Dec 25.1 °C 44 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
23 Dec 25.7 °C 40 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
24 Dec 26.2 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
25 Dec 26.3 °C 39 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
26 Dec 26.0 °C 39 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
27 Dec 25.9 °C 40 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
28 Dec 26.1 °C 39 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 Dec 26.4 °C 37 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
30 Dec 27.4 °C 32 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
31 Dec after 27.4 °C 33 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Jan after 27.4 °C 33 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
2 Jan after 27.4 °C 38 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Jan after 27.3 °C 46 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
4 Jan after 25.7 °C 52 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
5 Jan after 24.8 °C 49 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
6 Jan after 25.0 °C 35 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
7 Jan after 26.6 °C 30 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
8 Jan after 26.2 °C 28 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Jan after 25.7 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 25 Nov 2025
After · 6 Jan 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 16 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 198 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 151: 10 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak198 µg/m³
Days over the guideline22 days
PM10212 µg/m³
Optical depth0.82
567891011121314151617181920212223242526
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 568Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Rajim fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 2 December 2025 to 30 December 2025 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 December 2025 to 23 December 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 16,756 hectares (167.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Rajim (16,276 ha, 27 %); Chhura (427 ha, 0.4 %); Magarlod (88 ha, 0.1 %); Abhanpur (46 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.6 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, class High.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 23 December 2025 → 30 December 2025.
  2. Start date: 7 December 2025 → 2 December 2025.

RSS Changes to this page

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 7 December 2025 to 23 December 2025. 568 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.