Punjab: Farm fire cases touch 8,000 mark

Chandigarh: Farm fire cases reached the 8,000 mark in Punjab this season with the state reporting 136 such incidents on Saturday, data showed.

Sangrur district reported 50 stubble-burning incidents during the day, the highest maximum in the state, followed by 30 in Ferozepur, 17 in Barnala and 12 in Patiala, according to the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre.

On the same day in 2022 and 2023, the state saw 1,358 and 1,271 active farm fire events respectively.

From September 15 to November 16, Punjab has seen a total of 8,000 stubble-burning incidents, registering around 75 per cent dip in crop residue burning in comparison to such cases in the corresponding period last year.

Punjab had seen a total of 46,822 and 31,932 farm fires during the same period in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

The state has seen an addition of around 4,000 farm fire incidents since November 3 this season.

Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana after harvesting of the paddy crop in October and November is often blamed for the rise in air pollution in Delhi.

As the window for the Rabi crop -- wheat -- 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.

Punjab recorded a total of 36,663 farm fires in 2023, registering a 26 per cent drop in such incidents.

The state recorded 49,922 fire events in 2022, 71,304 in 2021, 76,590 in 2020, 55,210 in 2019 and 50,590 in 2018 with many districts including Sangrur, Mansa, Bathinda and Amritsar witnessing a large number of stubble-burning incidents.