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S' Bungtlang fire, March 2021 S' Bungtlang, Chawngte

Out · last measured on 19 Mar 2021

The fire started on 13 March 2021 in S' Bungtlang, India, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,137 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 42th largest in Mizoram since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 74 in India in 2021, of 78.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
5,137ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
13 Mar 2021 – 19 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
13 Mar
2021
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

38°high
34km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,483 ha in 2016, 1,372 ha in 2017, 1,881 ha in 2018, 2,088 ha in 2019, 2,585 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,502 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. S' Bungtlang where it started
    5,164 ha
    9.6 %
  2. Chawngte
    0 ha
    0.0 %

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)
13 Mar 38.0 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Mar 35.7 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Mar 36.7 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Mar 37.3 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Mar 37.5 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Mar 37.1 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Mar 37.3 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Mar after 37.7 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Mar after 37.8 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Mar after 39.5 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Mar after 40.1 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Mar after 38.5 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Mar after 38.8 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Mar after 38.7 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Mar after 39.3 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Mar after 35.8 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Mar after 37.3 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Mar 2021
After · 26 Mar 2021

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in India ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the S' Bungtlang fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 March 2021 and 19 March 2021: 7 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 5,137 hectares (51.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: S' Bungtlang (5,164 ha, 9.6 %); Chawngte (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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

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.

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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.

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.