Nation

Air pollution | Fiery Red Sunday: Max crop residue fires, in all Punjab dists | Chandigarh News – Times of India

November 6, 2023
Saqafy Times

BATHINDA: After the sustained vigil over a week resulted in crop residue burning cases hovering between 1,000 and 2,000, the number rocketed on Sunday to 3,230, the maximum so far in the ongoing paddy harvesting season, taking the overall count of the state to 17,403. It was also the first time in this season that all 23 districts reported crop fires.
Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s native Sangrurdistrict remained at the forefront in setting fire to paddy straw for the eighth consecutive day.This time, 13,217 out of the total 17,403 cases were reported in the state in the last 8 days which is over 75% of the total cases reported so far in the ongoing season.

Ground

Sangrur district remained way ahead of others in burning of crop remnants, reporting 551 farm fire cases. As many as 240 cases were reported on November 4, 305 on November 3, 298 on November 2, 345 on November 1, 221 on October 31, 198 on October 30 and 181 cases on October 29.
Sangrur has remained at the top since 2016 when farm fires began to be recorded. So far, a maximum of 9,705 cases have been reported in 2020, and the figure dipped to 5,239 last year. However, he crop residue burning so far is much lower than the previous two years, which is nearly 40% less than the previous year. The Punjab government had set the target of reducing farm fires by 50% from the 49,922 cases reported in 2022.
As per the Punjab remote sensing centre, out of the 3,230 burning cases, the maximum of 551 were reported from Sangrur followed by 299 in Ferozepur, 293 in Mansa, 247 in Bathinda, 189 in Barnala, 184 in Ludhiana, 179 in Moga, 177 in Tarn Taran, 169 in Patiala, 163 in Faridkot, 155 in Jalandhar, 133 in Muktsar, 119 in Kapurthala, 89 in Fatehgarh Sahib, 58 in Gurdaspur, 56 in Amritsar, 53 each in Fazilka, Malerkotla, 37 in SBS Nagar, 19 in Hoshiarpur, 4 in Roopnagar, 2 in Pathankot and 1 in SAS Nagar. Leading the stubble fires’ chart, Sangrur reported 2,698 cases followed by 1,830 in Ferozepur, 1,762 in Tarn Taran, 1,432 in Amritsar, 1,261 in Patiala and 1,256 in Mansa.
Against 3,230 burning cases in the ongoing season on November 5, 2,817 were reported on this date in 2022 and 5,327 in 2021. The cumulative figure for this season till November 5 is 17,403 compared to 29,400 in 2022 and 28,792 in 2021.
Meanwhile, with paddy arrivals in mandis crossing over 127 lakh MT, 70% of the target of the total over 180 lakh MT procurement in the state has been reached.