For five days, Uttarakhand was on fire.

Not during peak summer. Not during a heatwave. But in winter, when the mountains are meant to slow down, cool the air, and settle into stillness.

Instead, forests burned where snow should have rested. Ash floated through the air and settled on roofs and roads, replacing what once arrived as soft snowfall. The land looked dry and exposed, stripped of the moisture that usually protects it through the colder months.

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This winter, Uttarakhand reported 1,600 forest fires. Snowfall and rain were almost absent. The forests stayed brittle, ready to ignite.

The figures are alarming, yet what feels heavier is how little attention they received. Life elsewhere continued as usual, unaware that an entire season in the mountains had slipped out of balance.

There is no single moment to point to. This story has been unfolding slowly.

Trees were cut faster than they could grow back. Hills were opened up for roads and buildings, leaving little space for soil to hold water or for roots to anchor the........

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