Farm fires double than last season, but less than 2020, 2019 in district

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, May 30

As the current wheat harvesting season, popularly known as Rabi, officially drew to a close on Monday, farm fires almost doubled but remained less than the season’s cumulative count of 2020 and 2019 in Ludhiana district, the official figures have confirmed.

The raging fires in the agriculture fields made Ludhiana the sixth worst-hit district in the state with a total of 950 cases of crop residue burning recorded in Punjab’s biggest district till May 30. It was 84 per cent more than 517 stubble burning incidents reported in Ludhiana during the last Rabi season from April 1 to May 30, 2021, the data compiled by the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC) in Ludhiana has revealed.

Though this season’s farm fires in Ludhiana were less than 1,019 cases recorded in the Rabi season of 2020 and 1,035 of 2019, it were again higher than 730 crop residue burning incidents reported in 2018, 875 in 2017, and 918 stubble burning cases in 2016.

The daily graph of farm fires has also seen a major dip in the past 11 days of the current Rabi season in Ludhiana with only 10 cases reported between May 20 and 30. While no case of stubble burning was recorded in the district on six days (May 30, 27, 26, 25, 24 and 22), one case each was reported on May 29 and 20, two on May 23, and three each on May 28 and 21.

With this, the air pollution in the state’s industrial capital has also considerably declined during the past few days as the air quality index (AQI) has come down from 155 on Friday, 152 on Saturday, and 114 on Sunday to as low as 105 on Monday, which was considered “unhealthy for sensitive groups only”, with PM2.5 concentration in Ludhiana air currently 7.4 times above the WHO annual air quality guideline value.

The current AQI level has also substantially improved Ludhiana’s ranking from being the most polluted city in Punjab on May 11 and second most polluted city on May 19 to turning seventh most polluted city on May 30.

On the stubble burning front, Ferozepur remained the worst-hit district with the maximum of 1,429 farm fires, followed by Amritsar 1,245, Gurdaspur 1,127, Moga 1,099, and Tarn Taran 1,072 cases.

While Mohali remained the least affected district with a minimum of 31 crop-residue burning cases, Fatehgarh Sahib turned the second best district with 72 farm fires during the entire Rabi season.

Among other districts, which remained better than Ludhiana, Ropar recorded 75 stubble-burning incidents, Pathankot 168, Malerkotla 227, Nawanshahr 231 Mansa 412, Patiala 455, Barnala 472, Hoshiarpur 483, Faridkot and Fazilka 527 each, Muktsar 729, Kapurthala 730, Sangrur 785, Bathinda 830, and Jalandhar 835 reported farm fires this wheat harvesting season.

About The Author

Tribune News Service

The Tribune News Service brings you the latest news, analysis and insights from the region, India and around the world. Follow the Tribune News Service for a wide-ranging coverage of events as they unfold, with perspective and clarity.

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.