Stubble burning: 50pc drop in farm fires so far in Punjab

Punjab has reported a 50 per cent drop in farm fires so far in the ongoing paddy harvesting season even as the state on Friday saw 766 such incidents, highest in a single day this season. Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is considered one of the reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution levels in the national capital region in October and November.

From September 15 till October 27, the state witnessed a total of 4,088 farm fire incidents as against 8,147 such cases in the corresponding period last year, as per Ludhiana-based Punjab Remote Sensing Centre's data. The state had reported 6,742 farm fires during the same period in 2021.

Out of 766 farm fires witnessed on Friday, Tarn Taran reported a maximum 104 crop residue burning incidents, followed by 98 in Sangrur, 97 in Patiala and 76 in Amritsar. On the same day in 2021 and 2022, the state had seen 279 and 1,111 farm fires respectively.

Out of the total 4,088 farm fires reported so far, Amritsar constituted the bulk of crop residue burning cases at 1,001, followed by 503 in Patiala, 490 in Tarn Taran and 338 in Sangrur, as per 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 ex-situ (using stubble as fuel) management methods. Paddy harvesting is currently underway in the state.

As the window for wheat, a 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. 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 large number of stubble burning incidents.

Last year, Punjab had seen a 30 per cent drop in stubble burning as compared to the year 2021. Before the start of the harvesting season, the state agriculture department had sanctioned 24,000 crop residue management (CRM) machines in the state to check stubble burning incidents. Currently, the state has 1.35 lakh crop residue management machines.