Paddy harvest almost complete in Ludhiana district, 1,291 farm fires so far

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, November 13

The harvesting of paddy has been almost completed in Ludhiana district, officials have claimed.

With 143 fresh farm fires, the district’s highest daily count and second highest daily count in the state, on Diwali day, the state’s biggest and largest district, in terms of area and population, have so far logged 1,291 cases of stubble burning, which were eighth highest in Punjab, but still less than half of that during the corresponding period last year.

On Monday, the district witnessed 36 cases of stubble burning, which was the 11th highest daily count in the state.

The spike in farm fires coupled with brazen use of firecrackers in gross violation of the ban order turned Ludhiana fourth most polluted city on Monday from the least polluted city in the state on Sunday evening.

According to the block-wise report compiled by the Agriculture Department, a copy of which is with The Tribune, as much as 2,36,348 hectares, which accounted for 92 per cent of the total 2,56,900 hectares of the paddy crop, has already been harvested across 11 blocks in the district.

It was, however, 5 per cent less than 97 per cent harvesting recorded during the corresponding period last year.

While Samrala was leading the district with the highest of 97 per cent harvesting (13,677 of 14,100 hectares), the Doraha block was at the bottom with the lowest of 85 per cent (16,235 of 19,100 hectares) paddy harvest so far.

Among other blocks, Ludhiana has completed 90 per cent paddy harvesting, Mangat 95 per cent, Pakhowal 92, Sudhar 95, Jagraon 90, Sidhwan Bet 90, Khanna 94, Dehlon 88 and Machhiwara has harvested 96 per cent paddy crop as yet.

On the farm fire front, Ludhiana recorded 143 crop residue burning incidents on Sunday, which was a major spike after the age-old menace remained under control for the past three days. Sunday’s count for even more than the cumulative figure of the past four days when 119 stubble burning cases had been reported in the district with as high as 96 on November 8 and as low as 2 on November 10. However, it came down considerably to 36 on Monday.

With this, the total count of the farm fires has reached 1,291, which was 51.86 per cent less than 2,682 cases logged in the district during the previous Kharif season.

Meanwhile, the AQI in Ludhiana had improved unexpectedly and dipped to 79, with PM10 a prominent pollutant, which was considered satisfactory, on Sunday. This was the best rating in Punjab among the eight cities monitored by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

However, Ludhiana’s air turned fourth most polluted in the state on Monday with AQI again shooting up to 285 with PM2.5 prominent pollutant, which was considered poor. This returned a thick blanket of smog, especially in the morning and evening hours, causing great hardship to commuters, besides leading to health issues, mainly related to respiratory and pulmonary complications.

While Bathinda remained the most polluted city in the state with AQI 384, Patiala stood second with AQI 297.

Among other cities, Jalandhar recorded AQI 292, Khanna 261, Amritsar 253, Mandi Gobindgarh 243, and Ropar reported AQI of 145 at 7 pm on Monday.

As per official information, environmental compensation of Rs 7.35 lakh has been imposed on 286 cases of farm fires in the district so far.

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#Agriculture #Diwali #Environment #Farm Fires #Pollution #Stubble Burning