Smoke signals

Farm fires are likely to exacerbate this year

Crop fires after rabi harvest in summers are normally not taken too seriously because their environmental impact is usually localised. But this year, these blazes have come into focus because of the abnormal spike in their frequency. Going by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellite imagery data, the number of field fires between April 1 and May 16 spurted by around 50 per cent in Punjab and almost doubled in Haryana over last year’s corresponding period. Though these flames did not affect the quality of air in the National Capital Region (NCR) the way the winter fires