Spike in stubble burning across Punjab: CAQM
The government said crop residue burning incidents have drastically come down compared to previous year.
NEW DELHI: While some northern states reportedly recorded a decline in stubble-burning events during the paddy harvesting season this year, a sudden increase in farm fires has been reported from Punjab. According to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), the state recorded 1,068 farm fire incidents on Sunday which has been the season’s highest for the state. It is 740 per cent more than that reported on Saturday when Punjab recorded 127 events of stubble burning, and the trend is expected to rise further in the coming days.
“As of now, there is a substantial reduction in paddy stubble burning incidents compared to previous years. However, there has been a sudden spike in cases of stubble burning in Punjab during the last few days and harvesting is expected to peak in the next couple of weeks,” CAQM said in a statement. The US’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellite imagery also shows a sudden surge in crop residue burning in Punjab in comparison to the past week.
NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management interface shows that there is a surge of over 700 per cent of crop residue burning between October 25 and October 29 in Punjab. There were around 127 stubble burning incidents reported on October 28 which increased to 1,068 incidents on October 29.
The government said crop residue burning incidents have drastically come down compared to the previous year. According to the government data, between September 15 and October 29, there was a reduction of 54 per cent in farm fires compared to the previous year.
The total stubble-burning incidents in Haryana, Punjab, NCR – UP, NCR- Rajasthan and Delhi have come down from 13,964 in the corresponding period in 2022 to 6,391 in 2023. In Punjab, in the past 45 days, the single-day highest fire count during this year was 1,068 as against 2,067 reported on October 28 2022 and 1,353 reported on October 29 in 2021. The current year farm fires are 56.6 per cent & 41.6 per cent lesser as compared to the corresponding periods in 2022 and 2021 respectively.
In Haryana, the total stubble burning incidents detected this year are 1,094 as against 1,813 in 2022 and 2,413 in 2021. These are 39.7 per cent & 54.7 per cent fewer as compared to the corresponding periods in 2022 and 2021 respectively.MoEFCC officials said the reduction in forest fire is due to a series of interventions by various stakeholders including frequent reviews and daily monitoring.
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