Punjab recorded 51 stubble-burning incidents in the past 24 hours, the highest single-day count of the paddy harvesting season so far, taking the season’s tally to 174 as of October 13, according to the latest report of the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM).
The cumulative count of 174 incidents is 48 higher than the count during the corresponding period last year, according to the figures provided by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB). Punjab had recorded 126 farm-fire incidents by October 13 last year. The state had crossed the 100-incident mark on October 8. The districts of Barnala, Bathinda, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ludhiana, Mansa, Pathankot, Rupnagar and Malerkotla reported no incidents as of October 13, the report said.
Stubble burning is considered a major contributor to pollution in northwestern India and the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR). Multiple studies have suggested that farmers tend to set their fields ablaze after 3pm to evade satellite detection, prompting the government to call for intensified ground-level monitoring. The spike in farm fires comes a day after Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav, at a joint review meeting on Tuesday, stressed the need to intensify ground monitoring and enforcement to prevent stubble burning, particularly fires set after 3 pm.
