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Farm fires choke Punjab, air quality slips to severe, very poor category
State detects 1,778 stubble burning incidents on Wednesday, with Muktsar district topping the chart with 220 farm fires, followed Fereozpur 198, Faridkot and Bathinda 185 each
Patiala: With no end to raging farm fires in Punjab, many parts of the state remained engulfed in thick layer of eye-stinging smog on Wednesday with the air quality deteriorating to and ‘severe’ and ‘very poor’.
The Punjab Remote Sensing Centre detected 1,778 stubble burning incidents on Wednesday, with Muktsar district topping the chart with 220 farm fires, followed Fereozpur 198, Faridkot and Bathinda 185 each, Sangrur 149, Fazilika 146, Mansa 143, Moga 139, Barnala 138 and Ludhiana 110.
The state had seen 1,705 and 5,079 active fire incidents on November 9 in 2020 and 2021, respectively, according to the data. The cumulative farm fire cases in the state from September 15 till November 9 jumped to 34,868, according to the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre data. Punjab had reported 62,854 and 47,409 farm fires during the same period in 2020 and 2021.
Experts say low wind speed and clouds allowed pollutants to accumulate in the air leading to smog. On Wednesday, the Air Quality Index (AQI) of Khanna and Ludhiana turned ‘severe’ at 417 and 409, respectively, and ‘very poor’ in Amritsar at 333, Jalandhar at 334 and Patiala at 374. 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’. The AQI in severe category may cause respiratory issues even in healthy people, and serious health issues in people with lung and heart disease. Difficulties may be experienced even during light physical activity, say health experts.
Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is one of the reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution levels in the national capital region and surrounding areas in October and November. As the window for wheat sowing is short after paddy harvest, farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear the crop residue. Punjab has 76 lakh acres under paddy cultivation this year generating 200 lakh tonnes of straw.
According to experts, people in the state breathe the worst air between November 1 and November 15, the period when stubble burning peaks. “Hospitals OPDs are receiving patients complaining of breathlessness, cough and congestion and skin allergies due to spurt in stubble burning,” said Dr Ajay Kumar, a Patiala-based medical specialist.
An official of the Punjab Pollution Control Board said a thick layer of smog has enveloped cities and rural areas of the state as smoke of stubble fires didn’t disperse due to clouds and low wind speed. “Rain can provide respite as it will settle down suspended particles in the air,” he said.
“As expected, the number of farm fires has come down from this year but it is still on the higher side. We expect the stubble burning incidents do not cross the 50,000-mark this season,” said an agriculture department official.
