Punjab records half of last year’s farm fires, but pace picking up now

This year, the number of farm fires in Punjab till October 21 was 4,327 while the figure was 9,444 in 2020, data from Punjab Remote Sensing Centre shows

Punjab till Thursday recorded nearly half of the stubble burning incident against the total number of cases detected last year till the corresponding date.

At least 597 farm fires were detected in Punjab on Thursday of which 162 were in Tarn Taran district while the Mansa district recorded the least number of cases at just 1.

This year, the number of farm fires till October 21 was 4,327 while the figure was 9,444 in 2020, according to the data of the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC) that keeps tabs on the burning of crop residue in the state.

At least 597 cases were detected on Thursday of which 162 were in Tarn Taran district of the Majha region while the Mansa district recorded the least number of cases at just 1.

Nearly 50 cases each were detected in Amritsar, Ferozepur and Gurdaspur districts. Kapurthala reported 39 cases of stubble burning on Thursday, the highest in the Doaba region.

Experts attributed the less farm fire incidents to delay in the paddy harvesting season. But straw burning will pick pace in the coming days. They said that the state government must take stern action against the violators, especially in districts like Kapurthala, Ferozepur, Faridkot, Ludhiana, Moga, Patiala and Jalandhar to control the rise in stubble burning to protect the environment.

A senior police official from the Malwa belt said that they act as per the reports from the agriculture department to lodge FIRs in case of stubble burning. “But we too are helpless due to the ongoing farm agitation as nobody wants to take risk as the issue has been highly politicised,” he added.

A Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) official said, “We still can’t predict that the trend will remain the same as harvesting was delayed. The number of incidents from Majha is increasing and it is worrying. We are exhorting farmers to desist from stubble burning.”

Punjab has deputed 8,000 nodal officers, apart from asking deputy commissioners to monitor farm fires. But it has not yield much result on the ground. The state government has been conducting awareness programmes in villages, telling farmers about the ill-effects of the practice.