Decadal (2012-2023) account of spatio-temporal variability in satellite-detected biomass fires on Indian landmass and their fire radiative power.

Worldwide escalation in wildfire incidences calls for continuous monitoring and early detection of fires to strengthen regional fire combating strategies. Inter-annual variability in fire count and Fire Radiative Power (FRP), spatial spread of fires in the most active seasons during 2012‒2023 on Indian landmass are reported. Fire data is extracted from 375 m active fire detection product of Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) hosted by Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership. In every fire-year (March-February), constructed from the month of remarkable escalation in fires, fires were most populated in March or April in summer and November in winter. The yearly sum of fire spots ranged from 492,282 (2013) to 731,154 (2021). Inter-annual fire count trend grew at a rate of 10,794 per year, excluding COVID years of 2020 and 2021. Many cities with > 0.1 million population are located within or adjacent to the fire hot spots (20 km × 20 km grids), implying possibility of some impacts of seasonal fires both within and outside Wildfire Urban Interphases (WUIs). The study highlights the urgency of streamlining interventions to minimize wildfire incidences in order to protect forests, habitats, biodiversity, ecosystem services, human lives and property and minimize carbon loss, air pollution, perturbations in regional meteorology and radiative forcing.