To check farm fires, govt told to enforce action plan effectively

Chandigarh, September 22

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has directed the Haryana Government to ensure effective, intensified and strict enforcement of the state action plan and district plan to check farm fires, with a special focus on hotspot districts.

Kaithal, Jind hotspots last year

The hotspot districts, where the farm fire incidents were more than 500, were Fatehabad, Kaithal and Jind. The other districts of concern are Sirsa, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Ambala, Yamunanagar and Hisar.

Of the 22 districts of Haryana, the incidents of farm fires were nil or very minimal in nine districts as per 2022 data on stubble burning. In four districts — Palwal, Panipat, Rohtak and Sonepat — farm fire incidents were brought down to below 100. The hotspot districts, where the farm fire incidents were more than 500, were Fatehabad, Kaithal and Jind. The other districts of concern are Sirsa, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Ambala, Yamunanagar and Hisar.

During the meeting, secretaries in-charge of the Departments of Agriculture and Environment, Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) and deputy commissioners (DCs) concerned assured to take all necessary steps to implement the state action plan to achieve a drastic reduction in cases of stubble burning during the current paddy harvesting season. As per the state action plan, the total area under paddy is estimated to be 14.82 lakh hectare and a paddy straw generation of non-basmati paddy is expected to be more than 7.3 million tonne.

This year, CAQM had also sought district-wise action plans along with the state action plan. The status of availability of machinery was also deliberated upon alongside the use of straw as fodder and management of straw through bio-decomposer application.

The state currently has over 80,000 crop residue management machines. The overall availability of machines and procurement of new machines were also reviewed. The optimal utilisation of machines by mapping demand and supply was reiterated at the review meeting.

Based on the satellite data for kharif season in the previous year, hotspot villages and districts have been identified for the current year as part of micro-planning based on active fire location (AFL).

There are 147 villages in the red zone category, which recorded six and above AFL, while there are 582 villages in the yellow zone category, which had two to five AFLs.