Stubble burning incidents decline in Delhi-NCR, Punjab, Haryana: Agri Secy

New Delhi: Stubble burning incidents in Delhi-NCR, Punjab and Haryana have reduced this year due to government support for farm machinery and other measures, Agriculture Secretary Devesh Chaturvedi said on Monday.

The government has provided farmers with relevant equipment and necessary interventions to tackle the problem, Chaturvedi told reporters on the sidelines of an event.

"Certainly...because of the policy of providing machineries and in-situ and ex-situ measures, the incidents of stubble burning in Delhi-NCR, Punjab and Haryana have reduced," he said.

There have hardly been incidents of stubble burning in the last ten days, he said.

Stubble burning by farmers in northern India after harvesting has been a major contributor to severe air pollution in Delhi and surrounding areas during winter months.

When asked about other pollution sources, Chaturvedi said other ministries were better placed to comment.

"If there are other reasons (for pollution), other ministries are best to say," he added.

As per data maintained by ICAR's Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space (CREAMS), the overall crop residue burning incidents have come down by 15 per cent to 27,720 between September 15 and November 23, from 32,596 in the year-ago period.

However, burning incidents rose in Uttar Pradesh to 5,622 from 4,298 and in Rajasthan to 2,804 from 2,622 during the period, the data showed.

Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of incidents at 13,584, though down slightly from 13,796 a year earlier.

On November 23, satellites detected 1,154 residue burning events across the six states, with Madhya Pradesh accounting for 607 and Uttar Pradesh 522. Punjab reported three incidents, Haryana one and Delhi none.