Stubble burning: Punjab records 32 farm fires on Saturday, lowest in Oct

Punjab on Saturday recorded 32 farm fires, the lowest this month, even as the total paddy straw burning cases crossed 870, according to latest data.

Punjab had recorded 71 and 62 farm fires on the same day in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Of the 32 stubble burning incidents, Amritsar reported 18 followed by four each in Tarn Taran and Kapurthala.

Punjab recorded 123 cases of stubble burning on October 1, followed by 119 on October 2, 105 on October 3, 95 on October 4, 98 on October 5 and 91 on October 6, according to data from the Ludhiana-based Punjab Remote Sensing Centre.

The total cases of farm fires in the state from September 15 to October 7 have risen to 877. Punjab recorded 692 farm fires during the corresponding year-ago period, the data showed.

Of the 877 farm fires, Amritsar contrubuted the majority with 537 cases, followed by 120 in Tarn Taran, 51 in Patiala, 50 in Kapurthala, 22 in Mohali and 18 in Sangrur, it showed.

Paddy harvesting is underway in many areas of Punjab. Procurement began on October 1.

With about 31 lakh hectares of paddy area, Punjab produces around 180-200 lakh tons of paddy straw every year. Of this, 120 lakh tons are managed through in-situ (mixing crop residue in the fields) and ex-situ (using stubble as fuel) management methods.

Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is attributed as one of the reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution levels in Delhi-NCR in October and November.

As the window for rabi wheat sowing after paddy harvest is very short, farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the residue.

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 with many districts, including Sangrur, Mansa, Bathinda and Amritsar, witnessing large-scale stubble burning incidents.

Last year, Punjab witnessed a 30 per cent drop in stubble burning incidents compared to 2021.