Punjab reports nearly three-fold jump in stubble burning incidents in 9 days
Chandigarh: Punjab has reported nearly three-fold jump in farm fire incidents in the last nine days, with total number of such cases reaching 2,625 so far this season.
From September 15 till October 10 this year, the state had witnessed 718 stubble burning incidents.
According to data from the Ludhiana-based Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, the state recorded 436 farm fire cases on Wednesday.
From September 15 till October 19, a total of 2,625 farm fire incidents have been recorded, as per the data.
The situation looks better this year compared to farm fire incidents in the last two years as the state till October 19 had reported 7,115 and 2,942 such incidents in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
On October 19 in 2020 and 2021, the state had registered 698 and 496 incidents of stubble burning, respectively, as per the data.
On Wednesday, maximum stubble burning incidents were recorded in Tarn Taran (124), followed by Amritsar (82), Gurdaspur (64), and Patiala (27), among other districts, as per the data.
The farm fires continued despite the state government assuring more crop residue management machines and launching massive awareness programmes against stubble burning.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday in Ludhiana exhorted farmers to refrain from burning paddy straw as it poses a serious threat to human life through air pollution.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua asked the senior officials of the state to conduct regular inspections in all the districts to take stock of the ground situation of stubble fire incidents.
In a statement, Janjua said due to incidents of stubble burning, Punjab has to face embarrassment at the national level as the Supreme Court, National Air Quality Commission and National Green Tribunal have also expressed displeasure over stubble burning incidents in the state.
