The climate crisis in the Himalayas has crossed a terrifying threshold: this winter, forests from Uttarakhand to Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir are burning, not blanketed in snow. Satellite data analysed by India Today show a dramatic rise in winter forest fire incidents — higher by over 6,000 detections compared with the same period last year — as snowlines retreat and soil moisture vanishes amid a historically dry winter. Snowfall, once measured in feet, has fallen to mere inches or nearly negligible this winter, pushing ecosystems into shock.
Scientists link this alarming shift to weakened western disturbances, altered jet streams, and rising winter temperatures — direct fingerprints of man-made climate change. With less snow and soil moisture, forests become tinder-dry, fueling out-of-season wildfires. The impacts extend far beyond spectacular blazes: reduced snowfall threatens glacier health, river flows, water security for hundreds of millions, and agricultural livelihoods across northern India.
