Decline in farm fires fails to bring relief as city’s AQI level reaches unhealthy 164

Neeraj Bagga

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Amritsar, November 3

The farm fire incidents appear to be under reported if the escalated Air Quality Index (AQI) level is anything to go by.

The AQI level today reached an unhealthy 164 in the city. On the other hand, the farm fire incidents have declined during the past three days.

Today, 43 cases of farm fire were reported. The number of such cases was 86 and 57 on November 1 and 2, respectively. The city’s AQI level has been in the unhealthy category for the past 10 days. The sky remained overcast on Friday. People were expecting rain, but it didn’t come.

The authorities have filed 11 FIRs, including six under Section 188 of the CrPC for defying the orders of the DC issued under Section 144 of the CrPC and five under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

Along with fire tenders, officials of the Agriculture Department and the district administration visited those farms where stubble was set on fire. In several cases they took along owners of farms to douse the flames.

On the complaint of Cluster Officer Amardeep Singh, officials of the Jantipur police post filed cases against three farmers of Sarhala village under Section 188 of the CrPC. The Attari Naib Tehsildar took along a fire tender to douse burning crop residue on 32 kanals.

Environment experts of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) have attributed the spike in the city’s AQI level to farm fires and absence of rain. The average AQI, which was 89 from October 1 to 24, went up to 150 during the past 10 days.

They said climatic conditions during the winter also led to increase in the environmental pollution. The wind velocity was not enough to carry away pollutants. Unable to escape from the environment, these pollutants were concentrating at the same level and increasing pollution, they added.