IWN Daily Digest — Friday, 23 October 2026
Fires in India’s protected forests are heading in opposite directions depending on the landscape, with burned area climbing in some reserves and shrinking in others, and each trend is changing what grows back.
As reported by Mongabay India:
“Wildfires are ubiquitous across various eco-regions of India.”
“However, each region is characterised by variation in trends, drivers, and ecological challenges.”
— Narendran Kodandapani, lead author of the study
The research, from the Centre for Wildlife Studies, covers roughly 20,000 square kilometres of protected forest across 13 reserves in three landscapes. Between 2002 and 2022, burned area in the Eastern Ghats grew by about 9.3 per cent a year, while satellite data show it falling by about 10.8 per cent a year in the Western Ghats. Central India sits between the two.
The gap between fires in the same patch of forest averages about 14 years in the Eastern Ghats, against 31 years in Central India and 92 years in the Western Ghats.
Opposite Problems
In the Eastern Ghats, the more intense burning is favouring fire-resistant grasses such as Cymbopogon and making it harder for native trees to regenerate. In parts of the Western Ghats the worry runs the other way, since too little fire risks letting woody plants spread into grasslands that support herbivores.
Human and climate factors explained between 21 and 77 per cent of annual fire activity, depending on the reserve, and drought and community use of fire mattered to different degrees in different places. Higher population density was linked to more fires in Kawal Wildlife Sanctuary and Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, and to fewer in Nagarahole and Bandipur National Parks.
Kodandapani argues for integrated fire management that accounts for climate, vegetation and human factors.
Sources: Mongabay India
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