Wildfires that have been burning for over two weeks in northern Iran’s steep, densely wooded Hyrcanian forests flared again on Monday, prompting the deployment of helicopters and fresh ground crews, as officials warned that heat, wind and dry vegetation were fuelling the blaze.
Flames flared again in the hard-to-reach Elit area near the town of Marzanabad in Chalous after an earlier blaze had been brought under control, local media reported. Officials said the new outbreak forced the deployment of helicopters and fresh ground crews to try to prevent the fire from spreading across the slopes.
“A large number of protection units, local people, Basij volunteers and mountaineers are present at the scene to contain and extinguish the fire,” said Mehrdad Khazaei-Poul, head of the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Department in Mazandaran, according to ISNA news agency. “The area is very difficult to access and the steep, rocky terrain and high elevation have made the work harder.”
Khazaei-Poul said at least one helicopter had been sent from Tehran to support firefighting efforts, and provincial officials later reported that two aircraft had been dispatched with support from the defense ministry, with a third on standby.
“Without the help of firefighting helicopters, it is not possible for ground forces alone to fully control this fire,” he said.
Yahya Yousef-pour, the governor of Chalous, said fresh teams were being rotated into the area to relieve exhausted crews.
“Several operational groups, emergency services and local residents have been deployed to the area,” he told the official IRNA news agency. “Our goal is to minimize damage to natural resources and to control the fire as quickly as possible.”
The fires have broken out in parts of the Hyrcanian or Caspian forests, a band of ancient broadleaf woodland that stretches like a green belt along the southern shores of the Caspian Sea and the northern slopes of the Alborz mountains.
The forests, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site, host dozens of tree and shrub species and cover large areas of Mazandaran, which has more than one million hectares of forest – about 53% of Iran’s northern woodlands.
Officials said warm weather, low humidity and accumulations of dry leaves and dead wood had allowed small fires to spread quickly in recent days.
“Rising temperatures and the drying of vegetation have increased the likelihood of new fires and the spread of existing ones in forests and rangelands,” Khazaei-Poul said. “This year, higher temperatures and lower humidity have dried the soil and vegetation, so the risk of fire is greater.”
Environmental officials said the fires have also raised concerns for wildlife in the Hyrcanian ecosystem.
“There are many valuable plant and animal species in this region,” said Hadi Kia-Daliri, a senior Environment Department official. “Our first priority is to put out the fire, and the survival of many animal species now depends on how quickly we can control it.”
Authorities said protection units remained on high alert along the forest front in western Mazandaran, where several smaller surface fires have been reported in recent days.
Ali Ehsan Zafari, head of the national dairy products union, told ILNA news agency that the cost of raw milk had risen from about 230,000 rials per kilo (around 20 US cents) five months ago to roughly 390,000 rials (about 35 cents).
“This rate of increase is equal to what happened over 50 years.” He said factories were raising retail prices almost every day because “raw milk is the main input and its price rises every day.”
Dairy producers warn that demand has already fallen as households struggle to absorb higher food costs, raising fears of factory closures.
“With prices rising, demand has dropped, and this will ultimately lead to plants shutting down one after another,” Zafari said.
Producers and local media say drought-driven pressure on livestock farmers and sharply higher feed costs are among the main factors behind the jump.
Supermarkets have reported 50-60% increases across popular dairy items in recent weeks.
Iran’s broader inflation remains high, squeezing household purchasing power. Economists say official figures – including an annual inflation rate reported around 38% – understate real price pressures.
The Energy Ministry’s atmospheric water technologies organization said the first flight of the 2024–25 water year was conducted on Saturday over northwestern Iran, where Lake Urmia – once the Middle East’s largest saltwater lake – has largely dried into a salt plain after years of drought, over-extraction and extreme heat.
Mohammad-Mehdi Javadianzadeh, who heads the state body, said a specialized aircraft equipped for cloud seeding was deployed as a suitable weather system passed over the region.
He said teams plan to conduct operations “on all incoming systems that are technically viable” and are assessing conditions over Tehran and other provinces to determine whether additional flights can be launched in the coming days.
He said the aim is to maintain continuous operational capacity in the northwest, with authorities planning to base a dedicated aircraft in Tabriz to service both East and West Azarbaijan provinces.
The program is expected to run until mid-May using both aircraft and drones. Cloud seeding, Javadianzadeh added, is internationally recognized as a cost-effective tool for atmospheric water harvesting.
“Cloud seeding has been shown to increase precipitation and is used around the world not only to enhance rainfall but also to suppress hail, disperse fog and increase hydropower reserves,” he said.
But he warned that the technology has limits and requires clear public messaging: “If the issue is not explained properly, expectations beyond the capacity of the technology or disappointment with it may emerge among society and decision-makers.”
Cloud seeding widely used, but not a cure-all
Cloud seeding is used in more than 50 countries, including the United States, China, Australia and several Middle Eastern states. Scientific reviews suggest that under favorable atmospheric conditions the process can boost precipitation by 5 to 15 percent, though results vary widely and remain difficult to measure precisely.
Iran’s neighbors – especially the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia – have expanded large-scale seeding programs, with the UAE carrying out more than 200 missions a year and investing in drone-based techniques similar to those Iran has begun deploying.
Experts say that while cloud seeding can marginally increase rainfall, it cannot compensate for decades of overuse, aquifer depletion and climate-driven aridity across the region.
Prayers for rain held nationwide
The new operations come as Iran faces what water specialists describe as a nationwide emergency. Reservoirs supplying Tehran are at or near historic lows, and authorities warn the capital could face extensive rationing if winter rains fail. Some neighborhoods have already reported intermittent cuts.
This week, cities across Iran held rain-seeking prayers as clerics urged the faithful to perform the traditional salat al-istisqa amid the worsening drought.
In Tehran, worshippers gathered at the Imamzadeh Saleh shrine in the north of the capital on Friday. Similar ceremonies were held in Mashhad, Qom and Qazvin.
Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli said the prayer is “asking for water in all forms, not just rain,” calling it a moment for repentance and unity as water shortages deepen nationwide.
Experts say Iran is experiencing “water bankruptcy,” a condition in which consumption has exceeded renewable supply after decades of over-pumping, large-scale basin transfers and agricultural expansion.
Northwestern Iran has been among the hardest-hit regions. Lake Urmia’s collapse has triggered expanding salt storms that have damaged farmland and forced some residents to leave nearby villages, according to local media and environmental researchers.
Officials say unauthorized wells and heavy irrigation remain major drivers of groundwater decline.
Meteorological officials say rainfall so far this autumn is nearly 90% below long-term averages, making it the driest season in half a century.
Pollution levels in 14 cities across Khuzestan had reached the red category, meaning the air is unsafe for all groups, Iran’s national air-quality monitoring system reported on Saturday. Four other cities were listed as orange, posing risks to vulnerable populations.
Concentrations of airborne particles smaller than 2.5 microns, according to the report, had exceeded permissible limits at many monitoring stations, pushing much of the province into hazardous territory.
Rising hospital visits and wider spread
Khuzestan has faced repeated episodes of severe pollution in recent days. Farhad Soltani, acting deputy for treatment at Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, said hospital visits had risen sharply.
“The number of patients coming to hospitals increased 15 to 20 percent in October compared with the same period last year, and 20 to 25 percent in November,” he said, warning that pollution in Ahvaz and Khuzestan had reached a point where “the entire population is affected.”
Air quality has also deteriorated in other major cities. Iranian media reported that the air in the religious city of Mashhad was classified as unhealthy for sensitive groups for an eighth consecutive day on Saturday. The situation was driven by continued use of fossil fuels in industry, power plants and vehicles, combined with stagnant atmospheric conditions, Tasnim news agency wrote.
Isfahan choked for eleventh straight day
In central Iran, air quality in Isfahan remained in the red category for the eleventh consecutive day on Saturday, according to local monitoring data.
Pollution levels in the metropolis and some of its neighboring cities have risen to the point that the air is now deemed unsafe for the general population. Experts warned that conditions could deteriorate further in the coming days, citing the persistence of stagnant weather patterns and rising pollutant concentrations.
58,975 people in Iran had died from causes attributed to air pollution in the past Iranian year, equivalent to 161 deaths a day and around seven every hour, said Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi last week. Pollution-linked mortality, he added, had imposed an estimated $17.2 billion in economic losses over the same period.