Punjab sees 2,666 farm fires on Thursday, tally reaches 24,146: Data

Punjab on Thursday witnessed 2,666 farm fire incidents with Sangrur district seeing maximum crop residue burning cases.

With the fresh number of farm fires, the cumulative farm fire cases during September 15 till November 3, rose to 24,146, according to the Ludhiana-based Punjab Remote Sensing Centre data.

The state had reported 39,178 and 20,433 crop residue incidents during the same period in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

Out of total 2,666 farm fire incidents on Thursday, Sangrur topped the districts with maximum 452 farm fires, followed by 336 in Bathinda, 269 in Ferozepur, 254 in Barnala, 205 in Mansa, 180 in Moga and 168 in Patiala.

The state had reported 2,413 and 2,512 active fire incidents on November 3 in 2020 and 2021 respectively, as per the data.

Currently, the districts in Malwa region are reporting a rising number of stubble burning incidents.

The farmers continued to set crop residue on fire in order to clear fields for sowing the next crop--wheat and vegetables.

Meanwhile, many places in Haryana on Thursday evening reported air quality indices in 'poor', 'very poor' and 'severe' categories while Punjab witnessed air quality in 'moderate', 'poor' and 'very poor' categories.

Haryana's Charkhi Dadri reported its air quality index at 458, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data.

Among other areas in Haryana, Rohtak reported AQI at 443, followed by 440 each in Bhiwani and Gurugram, 435 in Bahadurgarh, 426 in Jind, 417 in Manesar, 392 in Kaithal, 382 in Faridabad, 369 in Panipat, 354 in Sonipat, 332 in Hisar, 315 in Fatehabad and 253 in Ambala.

An AQI between 0-50 is considered "good", 51-100 "satisfactory", 101-200 "moderate", 201-300 "poor", 301-400 "very poor", and 401-500 "severe".

While in Punjab, Amritsar, Bathinda, Khanna, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Mandi Gobindgarh and Patiala reported their respective AQIs at 223, 250, 191, 319, 215, 388 and 277 respectively, as per the data.

Union Territory Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, reported its air quality at 200.

Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is one of the reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution levels in the national capital in October and November.

As the window for Rabi crop wheat is very short after paddy harvest, farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the crop residue. Punjab generates around 180 lakh tonne of paddy straw annually.

The state recorded 71,304 such fire incidents in 2021, 76,590 in 2020, 55,210 in 2019, 50,590 in 2018, 45,384 in 2017 and 81,042 in 2016.