Centre says lesser stubble burning incidents observed in Delhi, NCR this year

In a statement, the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change said that the paddy residue burning events in the three states during the one-month period between September 15 and October 15 have reduced from a similar observation last year.

Amid concerns about air pollution due to stubble burning in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), the Centre on Friday said that the number of crop residue burnings observed in Punjab, Haryana and the eight NCR districts of Uttar Pradesh (UP) has come down this year in comparison with the same time last year.

In Punjab, four districts, namely Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Patiala and Ludhiana, contributed more than 70% to the total stubble burning events. (PTI | Representational image)

In a statement, the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change said that the paddy residue burning events in the three states during the one-month period between September 15 and October 15 have reduced from a similar observation last year. The ministry made the remarks following a report by the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM).

“As per the report based on the protocol framed by ISRO for the Commission, paddy residue burning events have been reduced by 69.49% in Punjab, by 18.28% in Haryana and by 47.61% in the 8 NCR Districts of Uttar Pradesh during the one-month period compared to the same period last year,” a statement from the ministry showed.

The first reports from Punjab were noted on September 16 and from the UP districts on September 18 while in Haryana it was observed on September 28. Further, the ministry also noted that in Punjab, a key agricultural state, 1,286 residue burning incidents were reported, significantly lesser than the 4,216 such events in 2020. A similar reduction in the numbers has been observed in Haryana and UP too, the ministry’s data showed.

In Haryana, there were 487 fire incidents in the last month against the 596 reported incidents last year. Meanwhile, in the eight NCR districts of UP, stubble fire incidents were almost reduced by half in the same time period and were recorded at 22 in comparison with the 42 incidents last year. Also in Delhi and in the two NCR districts of Rajasthan, no fire counts were observed, the ministry also said.

‘Major hotspots’

In Punjab, four districts, namely Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Patiala and Ludhiana, contributed more than 70% to the total stubble burning events, the ministry noted. In Haryana, three districts accounted for 80% of the incidents. They were Karnal, Kaithal and Kurukshetra.

Also, CAQM has met with individual state officials to implement the action plan to curb the stubble burning events. “Harvesting will be at its peak in the next few weeks and the State Governments are taking steps as per the Plan of Action to improve the efficacy of enforcement and implementation to effectively tackle the problem of stubble burning,” the ministry said in its statement.

The development came at the backdrop of a meeting between the Union ministry and the state governments concerned regarding an action plan to mitigate air pollution caused by stubble burning. Following this, Union environment minister Bhuepender Yadav earlier this month said that the four state governments mentioned above extended “constructive cooperation” regarding the issue.