After Majha, spike in farm fires in Malwa belt

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, October 16

Already facing a spurt in farm fires in the border belt, the air quality in Punjab, and eventually Delhi, is sure to take a further hit with farmers starting to burn paddy stubble in the Malwa belt.

Ferozepur and Patiala saw maximum cases of stubble-burning in the Malwa belt which recorded over 128 of the total 258 farm fires in the state.

The Delhi Government today shared an image from NASA, showing large-scale stubble-burning in adjoining states and blamed Punjab and Haryana for it. The data from the Punjab Remote Sensing Authority showed that farmers were now resorting to farm fires in the fertile Malwa belt.

Information gathered from the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and Agriculture Department officials confirmed that farm fires were fast spreading in the Malwa belt and would further affect the air quality index of Punjab.

“Farmers are now resorting to stubble-burning as they have little window before preparing the fields for the next crop,” they said.

Since October 15, stubble-burning has been on a rise in the Malwa region comprising 11 districts.

The data compiled by The Tribune revealed that as compared to seven incidents in the Malwa belt on October 8, over 128 stubble-burning case had been recorded in the area on October 15.

Satellite data revealed that Ferozepur had the maximum 58 stubble-burning incidents, followed by the CM’s home town of Patiala 37, Faridkot 10, Muktsar 2, Moga 10, Ludhiana 2, Bathinda 1, Mansa 3, Sangrur 5 and Fatehgarh Sahib 5.

Amritsar in the Majha belt continued to be the top defaulting district with 63 farm fires. Last year, Ferozepur and Patiala had reported only 14 farm fires each on October 15. On Tuesday, the National Green Tribunal asked Punjab to depute a person to report daily on air pollution in wake of the worsening air quality in Delhi-NCR.

“A majority of farm fires in the Malwa belt started two days ago and the number is only going to grow in next 10 days,” said a top official.

“This was bound to happen as harvesting has been delayed in Malwa. However, the pollution in next 10 days will ultimately travel to Delhi with the wind,” claimed an insider.

“Our job is to monitor the situation and provide the data to the government and authorities for necessary action,” said Krunesh Garg, member-secretary, PPCB. “We have tried to spread awareness and asked district administrations to act against defaulters,” he said.

Secretary Agriculture Kahan Singh Pannu said,“We have distributed sufficient machinery and also sensitised farmers on the issue, but the menace continues. We are working closely with our field staff.”