Arunachal Pradesh recorded 461 fire calls between 1 January and 27 April 2026, of which 323 were classified as forest fires.
Fires spread across the hills of Mebo in February, damaging forests, orchards, plantations and agricultural land after an unusually dry spell.
Roing, Pasighat and Namsai reported the highest number of forest fire incidents, with some fires burning for days and threatening villages, military stations and institutions.
Officials used helicopters, drones and fire breaks to control the flames, while local people helped prevent fires from reaching settlements and government infrastructure.
Farmers say this year’s fires spread faster and lasted longer than usual, raising concerns over dry weather, shrinking forest buffers and lasting ecological damage.
Forest fires are not new to Arunachal Pradesh. But this year, villagers and officials say, the flames lasted longer, spread faster and caused wider damage than in recent years.
In February 2026, forest fires spread across the hills of Mebo in Arunachal, burning forests, plantations and agricultural land. For Makbul Lego, a farmer from Siluk village in the Mebo subdivision of East Siang district, the fire first consumed his orange orchard before climbing uphill towards his other horticultural plantation.
“We have not seen a season like this before,” he said. “Since November, the weather remained dry.”
According to Fire and Emergency Services data, Arunachal Pradesh recorded 461 fire calls between 1 January and 27 April 2026, of which 323 were classified as forest fires.
The highest number of forest fire cases was reported from Roing, with 71 incidents, followed by Pasighat with 50 and Namsai with 47. Nearby areas also saw repeated fire outbreaks through the dry months.
While forest fires are not uncommon in Arunachal Pradesh, this year’s season stood out for its intensity, duration and spread. In several districts, fires burned continuously for days, threatening villages, military stations and government institutions.
“This situation was very serious because of the sensitive areas involved,” said Tsangpa Tashi, District Disaster Management Officer, or DDMO, in Pasighat. “There were military stations and several important institutional points nearby, so because of that the matter became even more serious.”
According to Tashi, fires in the Mebo subdivision of East Siang district continued for nearly five days. Helicopters were deployed for aerial water-dropping operations, while drone surveillance was used to identify severely affected zones.
Despite the scale of the fires, officials said no houses were destroyed in the Mebo subdivision. However, agricultural and cultivation losses were reported, though detailed assessments are still being prepared.
In Roing, the district headquarters of Lower Dibang Valley, the fires lasted even longer.
“This time the situation lasted for almost a month,” said Lower Dibang Valley DDMO T Ngurup. “Compared to the last two or three years, the forest fires were much more severe in our district.”
According to Ngurup, multiple fires were often reported simultaneously in different locations on the same day. One major fire reportedly continued for nearly 11 to 12 days in phases before being fully controlled.
The fires damaged vegetation, bamboo plantations and crops across affected areas. Yet officials said the situation could have become significantly worse had response teams failed to contain the flames before they reached nearby settlements and government infrastructure.
“We managed to stop it by creating fire breaks and with the help of local people,” Ngurup said.
According to preliminary assessments by the Mebo subdivision administration and the forest department, around 36 hectares of reserve forest and more than 36 hectares of private agricultural and horticultural land were affected across Sigar, Ralling and Mebo areas.
“January-February 2026 saw an unusual dry spell with little to no rainfall,” the administration noted in its assessment. “Even after dousing, the fires were seen reflaring.”
The administration eventually sought Indian Air Force helicopter support for aerial firefighting operations, reportedly the first such instance in the region.
In many parts of Arunachal Pradesh, people regularly use fire during jhum cultivation, also known as shifting cultivation. Burning vegetation before cultivation has long been part of farming practices in the region.
Nancy Yirang, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Mebo subdivision in East Siang district, said this year’s fire started in a forested area near the Sigar military base and later spread towards nearby habitation areas.
She said shrinking buffer zones between forests, villages and farmlands had increased the risk of fires spreading into reserve forests.
“Jhum cultivation and burning of dry vegetation remain common practices, but under drier conditions these fires can spread more easily,” she said.
Yirang added that while some short-term ecological recovery may be possible, the fires had caused long-term damage to forests in the Mebo region.
But villagers across affected districts said the fires this year spread unusually fast and lasted for days.
“Even if somebody lights a small fire, there’s a possibility it can spread,” Lego said.
Another farmer from Mebo, Tokrom Ratan, also said this year’s forest fire was huge.
“My farm was severely burned in the fire,” he said. More than 121 orchard trees on his farm were burnt in the forest fire.
“Fires have occurred before, but not to this extent. I don’t know about before I was born, but in my lifetime, this is the largest fire that has occurred.”
“We can’t say what caused the fire, but our suspect is people who go hunting and camping, or those who smoke, who might have started it. We are still trying to find out.”
This year’s dry season was much drier than the previous one, he added.
“Sometimes people leave fires unattended at night without properly extinguishing them,” Tashi said. “Since there had been no rain for several days, the dry conditions may have allowed the fire to spread slowly over a large area.”
In Mebo, authorities acknowledged that while short-term damage assessments had been conducted, no detailed long-term ecological recovery study had yet taken place.
Officials said awareness campaigns would become a major focus before the next dry season, particularly in villages where burning practices are common during cultivation periods.
“Presently, the emphasis is on short-term monitoring, preventing rekindling of the fire and awareness and directives on likely cause of fires are being issued,” the Mebo subdivision administration said.
After farming the same land for nearly 18 years, Lego said he had never seen the forests and hills remain this dry for so long.
Forest fires were not new to the area, he said, but the lack of rain and the early February heat made it much harder for the land to recover.
“We lose the medicinal plants,” he said. “We have seen fires before, but not a season like this.”
Marina Dai is a mentee of the Climate Change Media Hub at the Asian College of Journalism. The programme is supported by Interlink Academy, Germany