Stubble burning sees uptick in Moga, Fazilka districts

Mohit Khanna

Patiala, November 23

The stubble burning incidents have increased in Moga and Fazilka as paddy residue collection aggregators have reportedly denied making bales in these districts.

The fact came to light after the Punjab Pollution Control Board urged the district administrations to take measures to tackle farm fires.

In the past one week, both districts have reported around 100 farm fires each day. GS Buttar, Director Extension, Punjab Agricultural University, said, farm fires reduce significantly by this time of the year.

“As stubble burning is being reported from Moga and Fazilka, our extension team tried to unravel the reasons behind it,” said Buttar.

During the field survey, the extension team found out that Moga-based farmers who had sown long-duration varities ‘PUSA-44’ and ‘Peeli PUSA’ were setting residue on fire, while in Fazilka, farmers who had sown basmati and long-duration varities were burning straw.

The extension team also found out that a baler operator, ex situ management of stubble, declined to manage and lift the residue citing that they had already procured their quota.

Buttar said, “As window to prepare fields for sowing of wheat is narrow, it led to farm fires during the last leg of paddy harvesting.”

As many as 205 active farm fires were captured by the satellite on Thursday, thus taking the count to 36,323. The state had witnessed 140 fires during the same period last year.

Maximum fire events were reported in Fazilka (59) followed by Moga and Muktsar (28) and (25), respectively.

Bathinda continues to remain the most polluted city with an average AQI of 360 followed by Ludhiana 295, Jalandhar 215, Patiala 253 and Amritsar 188.