‘Poor’ AQI in Haryana’s 3 major paddy districts as farm fires rise

Kaithal, Karnal and Kurukshetra contribute 64% of the total 586 incidents of farm fires reported in the state till date

: The air quality in Haryana’s three major paddy growing districts of Kaithal, Karnal and Kurukshetra was on Wednesday recorded as ‘poor’ due to surging farm fires as they have till date contributed 64 per cent of the total 586 incidents of stubble burning reported in the state.

‘Poor’ AQI in Haryana’s 3 major paddy districts as farm fires rise

As per the air quality bulletin of the Central Pollution Control Board, the AQI of Kaithal Kurukshetra and Karnal was recorded at 269, 206, 216 respectively on Wednesday, falling in the ‘poor’ category. The districts have reported 161, 124 and 102 farm fires respectively till date, the highest in the paddy belt.

With rise in the stubble burning cases in the state, the air quality index (AQI) of industrial cities of Bahadurgarh 235, Dharuhera 215 and Manesar 202 was flashed in ‘poor’ category.

The industrial city of Faridabad was the only city which has ‘very poor’ air quality with the AQI of 304, whereas the air quality of Gurugram, Hisar, and Jind has improved to ‘moderate’ from the ‘poor’ after two days.

As per the data of the Haryana Space Applications Centre (HARSAC), the state witnessed 122 incidents of farm fires on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 586.

The maximum 36 new cases were reported in Kaithal, 28 in Kurukshetra, 19 in Karnal, 15 in Fatehabad, 7 in Ambala and 4 in Yamunanagar on Wednesday.

Also, Kaithal, Kurukshetra and Karnal contribute 64 per cent of the total 586 incidents of farm fires reported in the state till date.

However, officials of the state agriculture department said that the number of farm fires have started receding this paddy harvesting season as there was around 46 per cent decline in the farm fires against 1,082 incidents reported from September 15 to October 19 last year.

Karam Chand, deputy director of agriculture, Kaithal, which has reported highest number of farm fires so far this year said that they were conducting village to village awareness drive and the number will soon come down. He said that the district has recorded around 60 per cent decline in the incidents of farm fires than the last year.

The officials of the agriculture department said that the incidents of farm fires may continue for the next couple of days as harvesting was still going on in major paddy producing districts. Fatehabad and Sirsa districts may report more incidents of farm fires in the days to come as the harvesting in these districts will be at its peak next week.