Air quality turns ‘poor’, ‘very poor’ in many places in Haryana, Punjab

Chandigarh, November 2

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Many places in Haryana and Punjab Thursday reported air quality indices in the ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ categories.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board data, Hisar recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 422, followed by Fatehabad at 416, Jind at 415, Rohtak 394, Kaithal 378, Sonipat 377, Faridabad 373, Bhiwani 357 and Karnal 348.

In Punjab, Bathinda reported AQI at 303, followed by Mandi Gobindgarh at 299, Khanna 255, Jalandhar 220, Ludhiana 214 and Amritsar 166.

Union Territory Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, saw an AQI of 194.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.

Meanwhile, Punjab has reported a total of 9,594 stubble burning incidents till Wednesday, according to Ludhiana-based Punjab Remote Sensing Centre data.

From September 15 till November 1, the state witnessed a total of 9,594 farm fire incidents, a 46 per cent decline from the 17,846 such cases in the corresponding period last year.

Punjab reported 1,921 stubble burning incidents on Wednesday, according to the data.

With about 31 lakh hectares of paddy area, Punjab produces around 180-200 lakh tonne of paddy straw every year and of which 120 lakh tonne was being managed through in-situ (mixing crop residue in fields) and around 30 lakh tonne ex-situ (using stubble as fuel) management methods.

Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is considered one of the major reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution levels in the national capital in October and November.

As the window for wheat—a key Rabi crop—is very short after paddy harvest, some farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the crop residue for sowing of the next crop.