Iran's Lungs on Fire: Wildfires, Toxic Air and the Politics Behind an Environmental Collapse

[Passages]

Written by
Staff Writer
23rd November 2025

Hyrcanian fires and a poisoned sky
On the northern slopes above the Caspian Sea, a fire that started near the village of Elit in Mazandaran Province at the end of October has burned on for weeks in Iran’s Hyrcanian forests — one of the oldest temperate forests on Earth and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Officials call the operation to extinguish the fire “one of the most complex in recent years,” citing steep slopes, wind and drought. Helicopters and specialist aircraft were deployed only after two weeks of public pressure, and only after Tehran formally asked Turkey and other countries for help — a rare admission that it could not handle the disaster alone.

Local reports describe a three-week blaze around Marzan-Abad and Elit that was never fully extinguished, at least 20 injured volunteers, and roughly eight to ten hectares formally recorded as destroyed so far — small on paper, but in one of the most sensitive cores of a 40-million-year-old ecosystem.

At the same time, on the plains and in the cities below, the regime’s own health officials say nearly 59,000 people died in the last year from air pollution — about seven people every hour. Power plants across the country have once again turned to burning heavy fuel oil (mazut) because of gas shortages, even as major cities suffocate under smog.

https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/irans-lungs-on-fire-wildfires-toxic-air-and-the-politics-behind-an-environmental-collapse/