4,741 farm fire incidents in Punjab on Wednesday

Farmers in Punjab continued to defy the ban on stubble burning with the state reporting 4,741 farm fire incidents on Wednesday.

Though the stubble burning count was lower compared to Tuesday, it was still 59 per cent more than that of the corresponding period in the last year.

According to satellite data collected by the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, Sangrur and Bathinda continued to be the worst-affected districts with the highest number of farm fire incidents of 785 and 676 in a single day, respectively.

Among other districts, Moga, Mansa and Ferozepur reported farm fire incidents at 493, 460 and 433, respectively, as per the data.

On Tuesday, Punjab had reported the season's highest farm fire count at 6,668. The state had recorded stubble burning incidents of 165 and 2,983 on November 6 in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Between September 23 and November 6, Punjab reported 42,676 incidents of farm fire, which was almost 41 per cent higher than stubble burning incidents in the corresponding period last year.

According to the accumulated figure, Sangrur district again topped the chart of number of farm fire incidents at 5,557, followed by Ferozepur at 4,453, Bathinda at 4,211 and Patiala at 3,548.

Pathankot was the only exception where the count of farm fires was the lowest. The border district reported only four incidents of stubble burning incidents.

Paddy growers at several places in Punjab continued to set the crop residue afire in order to sow the next wheat crop.

They have been demanding Rs 200 per quintal as bonus on paddy for the management of stubble.