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IN · India · –

S' Bungtlang fire, March 2025 S' Bungtlang, Lawngtlai

Out · last detection 23 Mar 2025, 07:22 UTC

The fire started on 3 March 2025 in S' Bungtlang, India, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,406 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Mizoram since 2016 (of 35 with a page). Number 2 in India in 2025, of 14.

Burnt area
12,406ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
3 Mar 2025 – 22 Mar 2025
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
3 Mar
2025
Heat detections
504
in a single hotspot: 400 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Average daily power
657MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Mar22 Mar
23 Mar 2025

How it evolved, day by day

3 Mar 2025 · 39 MW · 4 4 Mar 2025 · 3 MW · 2 6 Mar 2025 · 3 MW · 1 7 Mar 2025 · 554 MW · 23 8 Mar 2025 · 525 MW · 34 9 Mar 2025 · 78 MW · 26 10 Mar 2025 · 924 MW · 39 11 Mar 2025 · 638 MW · 55 12 Mar 2025 · 475 MW · 16 13 Mar 2025 · 539 MW · 47 14 Mar 2025 · 451 MW · 49 15 Mar 2025 · 7,798 MW · 170 16 Mar 2025 · 2 MW · 2 17 Mar 2025 · 147 MW · 6 18 Mar 2025 · 51 MW · 5 19 Mar 2025 · 47 MW · 3 21 Mar 2025 · 38 MW · 5 22 Mar 2025 · 161 MW · 15 23 Mar 2025 · 9 MW · 2
3 Mar 8 Mar 12 Mar 15 Mar 21 Mar

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
45km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,992 ha in 2016, 3,877 ha in 2017, 3,996 ha in 2018, 4,969 ha in 2019, 4,729 ha in 2020, 9,437 ha in 2021, 6,052 ha in 2022, 3,728 ha in 2023, 4,947 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,190 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 7.8% of the area of London (124 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. S' Bungtlang where it started
    8,066 ha reached on 3 Mar
    15 %
  2. 4,410 ha reached on 7 Mar
    4.7 %

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 area4.1 ha
Residents≈ 3,800

Inside the perimeter there were about 4.1 hectares of built-up land and about 3,800 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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 9.8 % of the area in India

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
3 Mar 34.4 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Mar 33.8 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Mar 33.5 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Mar 33.9 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Mar 33.6 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Mar 33.3 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Mar 33.8 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Mar 35.6 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Mar 34.7 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Mar 33.5 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Mar 35.3 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Mar 35.2 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Mar 36.0 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Mar 36.7 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Mar 35.9 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm High 36
18 Mar 34.3 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
19 Mar 37.1 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Mar 35.4 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
21 Mar 35.3 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.7 mm High 34
22 Mar 35.6 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 38
23 Mar after 35.3 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
24 Mar after 35.1 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Mar after 35.2 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Mar after 36.1 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Mar after 34.7 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Mar after 35.8 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Mar after 37.3 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Mar after 37.5 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Mar after 36.8 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Apr after 36.5 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 33.5, a minimum humidity of 31% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 28.

FWI at the start 33.5
Minimum humidity 31 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Paletwa fire, March 2016
8,195 ha 10 days FWI 32.9 Min. humidity 33 % 107 km away, in 2016

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.8 mm on 31 Mar.

What happened to them

14 days
median duration
3,944 ha
median area
7 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 14 of 28 had it)

It was 3.1 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 20 days, against 14 days.

Only 2 of its 28 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 14 of 28, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
45km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 22 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 14 of 28, with a median of 2.7 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Feb 2025
After · 29 Mar 2025

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 15 March 2025 the air beside the fire reached 205 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 133: 8.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak205 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM10214 µg/m³
Optical depth1.19
5 Mar8 Mar11 Mar14 Mar17 Mar
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 · 504Every 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 S' Bungtlang fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 March 2025 to 22 March 2025 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 March 2025 to 15 March 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 12,406 hectares (124.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: S' Bungtlang (8,066 ha, 15 %); Lawngtlai (4,410 ha, 4.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 28. Their median duration was 14 days and their median area 3,944 ha; 7 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 2 of its 28 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 14 of 28, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 mm.

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: 15 March 2025 → 22 March 2025.
  2. Start date: 7 March 2025 → 3 March 2025.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 March 2025 to 15 March 2025. 504 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.