2,029 farm fires logged in 48 hrs

Tribune News Service

Patiala/Ludhiana, April 28

As many as 2,029 incidents of stubble burning have been reported over the past 48 hours in the state. Around 965 incidents were reported on Thursday and 1,064 on Wednesday. The number is likely to shoot up in the coming days.

As per the Crop Residue Burning Information and Management System, the state has already reported over 3,093 incidents in this season so far. After harvesting the crop, farmers burn the residue on the fields. This creates a health and environmental risk.

Crop matured early

The incidents have peaked early this year as wheat crop matured before time owing to the higher temperature. The rise in incidents won’t impact environment much as the dispersion of pollutants is very high. —Karunesh Garg, Member-secretary, PPCB

Sangrur, the home district of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, has reported 357 incidents in the current season. This number is highest among districts. Sangrur is followed by Ferozepur with 327 incidents.

In Ludhiana too, there has been a steep rise in the incidents. From only nine incidents in the first 20 days of the current wheat harvesting season, till April 20, the incidents in the state’s largest district touched the total of 107 on April 28.

The maximum (38) incidents were recorded on Thursday, as per the data of the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, Ludhiana.

Due to the rise in stubble burning, the air quality has been fluctuating between “very poor” and “poor”, leading to serious breathing problems to residents, especially those suffering from bronchitis and heart ailments.

It is learnt that the fire incidents have increased drastically as compared to the corresponding period of the last year. Until April 28, last year, only 965 incidents had been reported. Karunesh Garg, member-secretary, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), said the fire incidents had peaked early this year as wheat crop had matured before time owing to the higher temperature.

He added that the rise in the incidents would not impact the environment much as the dispersion of pollutants was high.

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#Environment #farm fires #Pollution #PPCB #stubble burning