E-Paper
Punjab sees 89 farm fires, most cases in Malwa
Punjab has eight continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS) and six of them recorded the air to be ‘moderate’ with air quality index between 101 and 200 this evening which means that the prevalent conditions in Bathinda, Ludhiana, Rupnagar, Patiala, Khanna and Mandi Gobindgarh can “lead to breathing discomfort to asthmatic patients and people with lung and heart diseases”
Punjab recorded another 89 cases of farm fires on Saturday as the air quality in the state and the national capital region (NCR) continued to deteriorate.
Punjab has eight continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS) and six of them recorded the air to be ‘moderate’ with air quality index between 101 and 200 this evening which means that the prevalent conditions in Bathinda, Ludhiana, Rupnagar, Patiala, Khanna and Mandi Gobindgarh can “lead to breathing discomfort to asthmatic patients and people with lung and heart diseases”.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), AQI of Amritsar was unavailable due to insufficient data. Jalandhar’s AQI was ‘satisfactory’ on a scale of 84 which means it can cause “minor breathing discomfort to sensitive people”.
According to the Ludhiana-based Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC), different districts of the Malwa region contributed 65% of the total fresh events reported on Saturday.
On October 14, 89 farm fires were reported from 16 districts and the count of total cases reached 1,319.
The PRSC satellite recorded 58 fire incidents in 12 districts of the Malwa region.
Data analysis says this year’s number of rice residue burning was higher by 322 cases recorded till October 14 last year. In 2021, 1,286 cases were reported in Punjab during the corresponding period of the kharif harvest season.
On Saturday, Amritsar witnessed 15 fresh fires, the maximum number of cases from a single district and the total number of stubble fire cases reached 644 in the district.
Patiala and Sangrur recorded 12 and 11 farm fires respectively.
Similarly, the Malwa districts of Ferozepur and Fatehgarh Sahib saw eight and seven farm fires, respectively.
As per the Punjab mandi board data, 2.90 lakh tonnes paddy reached the mandis on Saturday and 21.61 lakh tonnes grain reached the markets by October 14.
