Page 7 - Stubble Burning

Haryana cracks down on stubble burning, imposes fines of over Rs 25 lakh

Amplifying its crackdown against stubble burning offenders, the Haryana government has issued 939 challans and imposed fines of over Rs 25.12 lakh, officials said on Friday. The state government remains dedicated to completely eliminating the crop residue burning incidents, even as it has achieved 38 per cent reduction in stubble burning incidents during the current harvesting season over the previous year, they said. The officials said the state government is taking stringent action against those responsible for the farm fires, having imposed 939 challans with fines totalling over Rs 25.12 lakh by October 31. Haryana Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal said the state government is vigilant about the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the state and has implemented stringent measures to further reduce paddy straw burning. Some places in Haryana have reported air quality indices in the 'poor' and 'very poor' categories during the past few days. Kaushal, during a virtual meeting, said a signific

Haryana targets to reduce stubble burning by 50%: Dy Commmssioner Jind

Raza further said that 95% of paddy harvesting was already over and the stubble burning instances would get reduced

Stubble burning: Punjab sees 1,068 farm fires, highest in a day this season

Punjab reported 1,068 farm fires on Sunday, the highest in a single day in the current harvesting season as paddy growers continue to burn crop residue. Out of 1,068 stubble burning incidents witnessed on Sunday, among the districts Sangrur reported a maximum 181, followed by 155 in Ferozepur, 133 in Tarn Taran, 83 in Patiala and 66 in Mansa, according to the data of the Ludhiana-based Punjab Remote Sensing Centre. On the same day in 2021 and 2022, the state had seen 1,353 and 1,898 farm fires, respectively. From September 15 till October 29, the state witnessed a total of 5,254 farm fire incidents as against 12,112 such cases in corresponding period last year, showing 57 per cent decline in number of farm fire incidents. The state had reported 8,856 farm fires during the same period in 2021. Out of the total 5,254 farm fires reported so far, Amritsar constituted the bulk of crop residue burning cases at 1,060, followed by 646 in Tarn Taran, 590 in Patiala, 540 in Sangrur and 505

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Stubble burning contribution to Delhi's pollution likely to reduce: Rai

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Saturday that the number of stubble burning incidents recorded in neighbouring states so far is fewer than last year, and the overall contribution of farm fires to the city's air pollution is expected to reduce. However, he cautioned that air pollution may increase in the coming days due to unfavourable meteorological conditions. Only around 2,500 stubble burning incidents have been recorded so far, compared to 5,000 such cases during the same period last year, he told reporters here. According to the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Punjab, which accounts for the maximum number of cases of stubble burning every year, reported 49,922 farm fires in 2022, compared to 71,304 the previous year and 83,002 in 2020. The agrarian state logged 50,738 incidents of stubble burning in 2019, 59,684 in 2018, 67,079 in 2017, and 1,02,379 in 2016. Haryana recorded 3,661 farm fires in 2022, down from 6,987 in 2021 and 4,202 in 2020. The neighbour

Stubble burning: Centre should provide compensation, says Sukhbir Badal

Haryana Government on Friday released images that they claim are from NASA which shows that there are more than double stubbing burning incidents in Punjab as compared to Haryana on October 25 and 26

Stubble to become a source of income, employment instead of pollution in UP

The Yogi government has set a target to establish biogas plants in every tehsil, some of which will soon become operational

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As Delhi's AQI turns 'very poor', stubble-burning reported in Haryana

"We are forced to set fire to the straw as we have to sow the next crop, we are getting late in it, that is why we have to burn it," a farmer said

NGT issues notice to Punjab CS, CPCB on pollution caused by stubble burning

Voicing concern over burning of crop residue that causes air pollution in the national capital, the National Green Tribunal has issued notices to the Punjab chief secretary and member secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The NGT was hearing a petition it had initiated on its own (suo motu) following a media report highlighting a rise in farm fire incidents in Punjab. The report said stubble burning in the state around autumn was among the biggest contributors to pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR). A bench of NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and expert member A Senthil Vel noted a report by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) which detailed the comparative data of three years on stubble burning incidents along with the names of hotspot districts known for farm fire incidents. Effective implementation of various measures is the key for controlling stubble burning in the state, the bench said on Friday. It said the state authorities, ..

Delhi LG expresses concern over spike in stubble fires in Haryana, Punjab

Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena has written to the chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana expressing concern over the rise in stubble fires in their states and asked them to take remedial measures to protect the national capital from increased air pollution during winter season. In his letter to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Saxena said it is "extremely worrisome" that the incidents of stubble burning between September 15 and October 11 have reached 1,063 -- 300 more than the figure for the corresponding period last year. Saxena had written to Mann last year as well when Delhi was choking under pollution caused by smoke from across its borders. "Between October 24, 2022 and November 2, 2022, there had been an increase of 19 per cent in the incidents of parali burning in comparison to the corresponding period of the previous year. You would also recall that last year, of the 5 states that affect Delhi's air quality, Punjab had remained the only non-performing outlier," said the ..

Stubble burning: Delhi govt launches drive to spray bio-decomposer

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Friday launched a drive for spraying bio-decomposer in paddy fields in the capital to prevent stubble burning. Since 2020, the Delhi government has been using Pusa bio-decomposer, a microbial solution that decomposes paddy residue in 15-20 days, to prevent stubble burning in the capital. Farm fires are a major reason behind a spike in air pollution in Delhi-NCR in October-November. The government sprayed the bio-decomposer over 4,400 acres of paddy fields last year, Rai said, adding that 5,000 acres of land will be covered this season. The minister said stubble burning is rampant in Punjab, but he hoped that the number of farm fires would come down due to the steps taken by the AAP government in the agrarian state. According to the Union environment ministry, the maximum share of farm fires in Delhi's PM2.5 pollution stood at 34 per cent on November 3 last year and 48 per cent on November 7, 2021.

Sunflower seeds to capsicum: Minimum support price fire is raging

The second of a two-part series looks at the policy lacunae that keep farmers from growing other crops which cut out the need to burn stubble

The burning problem: Water woes at the centre of Punjab's smoke screen

The first of a two-part series looks at the reasons compelling farmers across Punjab to burn stubble

TMS Ep537: Work from home, stubble burning, markets, personal guarantees

Has 'work from home' reached its end? Why are measures to control stubble burning failing? What are markets expecting from Q2 earnings? What are personal guarantees? All answers here

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 Punj

Stubble burning cases top total of the last two years, shows data

The retreat of the southwest monsoon from northern India and an early harvest have contributed to the rise in instances of stubble burning in the six states

Gurdaspur district launches novel initiative to curb stubble burning

Stop stubble burning and get special treatment at government offices. The Gurdaspur district administration has come up with this novel idea to curb crop residue burning, one of the major reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution in the national capital region in October and November. Farmers who abstain from stubble burning will be recognised as environment protectors ('vatavaran de rakhe') and given appreciation certificates. By showing it, they can avoid queues at government offices. Not just farmers, villages which report zero stubble burning in the harvesting season will also get the 'vatavaran de rakhe' certificates and will be prioritised for any development project. The window for sowing wheat, a Rabi crop, is very short after paddy harvest. Hence, farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear the crop residue and prepare the sowing of the next crop. With about 31 lakh hectares of paddy sowing area, Punjab produces around 180 lakh to 200 lakh tonnes of paddy st

NHRC raises concern over 'tardy progress' towards zero stubble-burning aim

The NHRC on Friday expressed serious concern over the "tardy progress" towards achieving zero stubble burning to reduce air pollution, with its chairperson saying the time has come to "fix responsibility of officers from the top to bottom". National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairperson justice (retd) Arun Kumar Mishra said this while chairing the full Commission follow-up hearing through video conference on the matter of Delhi air pollution, which the rights panel had taken up suo motu last year on the basis of media reports, officials said. Expressing serious concern over the tardy progress towards achieving zero stubble-burning to reduce air pollution, the NHRC chief said the time has come to "fix responsibility of officers from the top to bottom". He said, "We have to rise to the situation as millions are choking due to air pollution and cannot allow it to be so perpetually". "The poor farmers cannot be blamed solely for stubble burning some of them do not have the financi

Centre allots Rs 600 crore to state govts for paddy straw management

Of this, around Rs 105 crore has already been released to Punjab, which records the highest incidents of stubble burning, while Rs 90 crore has been allocated for Haryana