Punjab records 283 stubble burning cases, highest single-day spike

Punjab on Wednesday saw the season's highest single-day spike in stubble burning with 283 instances, official data showed.

The latest addition took the total farm fire count since September 15 to 1,216.

Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Sangrur and Ferozepur districts accounted for the bulk of crop residue burning cases, according to Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) data, as many farmers continued to disregard the state government's appeal to not set the crop residue on fire  According to the data, the highest farm fire incidents were reported from Tarn Taran at 296, followed by Amritsar, 173, Sangrur, 170, Ferozepur, 123, Patiala, 73, Bathinda, 61, and Kapurthala at 48.

Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana is often blamed for the rise in air pollution in Delhi-NCR.

As the window for the Rabi crop, wheat, is very short after paddy harvest in October-November, some farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off crop residues.

According to PPCB data, the total area under paddy cultivation in Punjab this year is 31.72 lakh hectares. Till October 29, almost 70 per cent of this area had been harvested.

Authorities have so far filed 476 anti-pollution cases, and collected Rs 24.25 lakh in fines, of which Rs 15.20 lakh has been collected, according to the PPCB.

The data showed that 376 of these FIRs were registered over farm fires under Section 223 (disobedience of order promulgated by public servant) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Authorities have also marked 432 'red entries' in the land records of farmers who burned crop residues.

A red entry bars the farmers from getting loans against their farmland or selling it.

Pathankot and Rupnagar districts have not reported any stubble-burning incidents so far. followed by SBS Nagar and Hoshiarpur, which logged four and seven instances of it.

Punjab saw 10,909 farm fires in 2024 as compared to 36,663 in 2023, marking a 70 per cent drop.

The state recorded 49,922 farm fire events in 2022, 71,304 in 2021, 76,590 in 2020, 55,210 in 2019, and 50,590 in 2018.

Sangrur, Mansa, Bathinda, and Amritsar, reporting the bulk of such incidents.