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Seoni-Malwa fire, 22 March 2026 Rehti, Nasrullaganj, Seoni-Malwa

Out · last detection 31 Mar 2026, 20:04 UTC

The fire started on 22 March 2026 in Seoni-Malwa, India, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,141 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 16th largest in Madhya Pradesh since 2016 (of 60 with a page). Number 11 in India in 2026, of 65.

Burnt area
16,141ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
22 Mar 2026 – 31 Mar 2026
Municipalities hit
4
subdistricts
Started on
22 Mar
2026
Heat detections
620
in a single hotspot: 97 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Mar 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Mar31 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

22232425262728293031

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
41km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 51 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: 1,909 ha in 2016, 4,157 ha in 2017, 4,407 ha in 2018, 5,251 ha in 2019, 7,864 ha in 2020, 3,915 ha in 2021, 6,020 ha in 2022, 4,088 ha in 2023, 1,790 ha in 2024, 4,586 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,087 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Rehti
    11,030 ha reached on 23 Mar
    14 %
  2. Nasrullaganj
    4,990 ha reached on 22 Mar
    4.8 %
  3. Seoni-Malwa where it started
    161 ha reached on 21 Mar
    0.1 %
  4. Dolariya
    22 ha reached on 26 Mar
    0.1 %

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)
21 Mar 31.2 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Mar 33.2 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Mar 35.4 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
24 Mar 35.3 °C 28 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Mar 37.2 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
26 Mar 37.4 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Mar 38.1 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Mar 36.9 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Mar 37.0 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
30 Mar 37.7 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
31 Mar 36.8 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Apr after 37.1 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Apr after 36.5 °C 35 % 30 km/h 1.1 mm High 32
3 Apr after 36.0 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
4 Apr after 35.4 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Apr after 34.5 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Apr after 35.1 °C 22 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Apr after 34.9 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Apr after 33.8 °C 36 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Apr after 34.5 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Apr after 35.9 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Apr after 37.7 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Apr after 39.4 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Apr after 40.6 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Apr after 40.3 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Apr after 40.2 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Apr after 40.8 °C 21 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Mar 2026
After · 7 Apr 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 1 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 44 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak44 µg/m³
Days over the guideline11 days
PM1078 µg/m³
Optical depth0.67
202122232425262728293031123
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 · 620Every 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 Seoni-Malwa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 March 2026 and 31 March 2026: 10 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 16,141 hectares (161.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Rehti (11,030 ha, 14 %); Nasrullaganj (4,990 ha, 4.8 %); Seoni-Malwa (161 ha, 0.1 %); Dolariya (22 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.

Report an error
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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.