Latest News | 1,778 New Stubble-burning Incidents in Punjab
Get latest articles and stories on Latest News at LatestLY. Punjab saw 1,778 stubble-burning incidents on Wednesday, with Muktsar district witnessing a maximum 220 farm fires.
Chandigarh, Nov 9 (PTI) Punjab saw 1,778 stubble-burning incidents on Wednesday, with Muktsar district witnessing a maximum 220 farm fires.
The state had seen 1,705 and 5,079 active fire incidents on November 9 in 2020 and 2021 respectively, according to the data.
Farmers continued to burn stubble despite the state government holding a massive awareness programme against crop residue burning. Many places in Punjab and Haryana reported air quality indices in 'poor', 'very poor' and 'severe' categories.
Muktsar reported 220 such cases, followed by 198 in Ferozepur, 185 each in Faridkot and Batala, 149 in Sangrur, 146 in Fazilka, 143 in Mansa, 138 in Barnala and 110 in Ludhiana, the data stated.
The cumulative farm fire cases from September 15 till November 9 jumped to 34,868, according to the Ludhiana-based Punjab Remote Sensing Centre data.
The state had reported 62,854 and 47,409 farm fires during the same period in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Khanna and Ludhiana reported an AQI of 417 and 409 respectively. It was 372 in Patiala, 333 in Jalandhar and 328 in Amritsar.
Chandigarh reported an air quality of 395, while Haryana's Ambala reported its air quality index at 475, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data.
Kurukshetra reported an AQI of 466, followed by 388 in Kaithal, 336 in Karnal, 330 in Panchkula, 321 in Panipat, 319 in Fatehabad and 170 in Gurugram.
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'.
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 lac tonnes of paddy straw annually.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)