Punjab records 1,030 farm fires in a day, air quality turns 'poor'

Few places in Punjab on Monday reported air quality indices in the 'poor' and 'very poor' categories as the state reported 1,030 farm fires with Sangrur district witnessing the maximum number of such incidents.

Monday's farm fires took the total number of crop residue burning incidents in the state to 6,284 in the current paddy harvesting season, data released by the Ludhiana-based Punjab Remote Sensing Centre showed.

Of the 1,030 stubble burning incidents reported on Monday, Sangrur recorded a maximum of 198 such cases, followed by 129 in Tarn Taran, 124 in Ferozepur and 80 in Mansa.

On the same day in 2021 and 2022, the state had seen 1,373 and 1,761 farm fires respectively.

Meanwhile, as paddy harvesting is underway in Punjab, many places in the state on Monday recorded 'moderate' to 'very poor' air quality.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board data, Bathinda recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 379, followed by Ludhiana at 241, Amritsar 201, Jalandhar 183 and Patiala 165.

Union Territory Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, saw an AQI of 140 on Monday.

In Haryana, Jind reported an AQI of 405, followed by Bhiwani at 320, Faridabad 301 and Gurugram 218.

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

From September 15 till October 30, the state has witnessed a total of 6,284 farm fire incidents, a 55 per cent decline from the 13,873 such cases in the corresponding period last year.

The state had reported 10,229 farm fires during the same period in 2021.

Of the total 6,284 farm fires reported so far, Amritsar constituted the bulk of crop residue burning cases at 1,103, followed by 775 in Tarn Taran, 738 in Sangrur and 645 in Patiala, as per the data.

With about 31 lakh hectares of paddy area, Punjab produces around 180-200 lakh tonne of paddy straw every year and of which 120 lakh tonne was being managed through in-situ (mixing crop residue in fields) and around 30 lakh tonne ex-situ (using stubble as fuel) management methods.

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

As the window for wheat -- a key Rabi crop -- is very short after paddy harvest, some farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the crop residue for sowing of the next crop.