Stubble burning: Punjab’s Taran Taran, Firozpur, Faridkot districts accounted for 35% of field fires on Diwali

Earlier this month, farmers of various districts had said they would celebrate “black Diwali” by burning straws and setting their fields on fire. They had said the burning would not stop until proper machinery was made available. About 100 farmers have been fined and cases were registered against many.

“We recorded 1,188 field fires on Diwali night, with 35% of them (412 fires) in just 3 districts. After October 19 (Diwali), the number of fires have been increasing with the end of the harvesting season and the approaching wheat sowing season, which will start from the second week of November,” said Gurbakhshish Singh Gill, the in charge of Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC), which is under the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB).

Gill said in the beginning that 70 to 80 field fires were recorded daily, which went up to 200 by the second week of October. “Over the past one week, 1,000 fires are being detected daily through satellite images by using the Geographical Information System (GIS) and GPS at PRSC,” he said.

Apart from the three, Patiala saw 89 field fires, Jalandhar and Ludhiana recorded 80 each, Gurdaspur had 73, Mukatsar had 71 and Bathinda encountered 62. Kapurthala and Fatehgarh Sahib districts recorded 57 field fires each. Amritsar, Moga Mansa, Nawanshahr and Sangrur had 46, 41, 30, 29 and 23 field fires respectively. Only Barnala, Pathankot, SAS Nagar, and Runagar recorded less than 10 fires. Hoshiarpur district saw 16 fires.

NGT had directed the state government to impose a fine of Rs. 2500 for setting 2-acre land on fire, Rs. 5,000 for five acres land, Rs. 10,000 for 10 acres and Rs. 15,000 to 20,000 for big farmers. Around 29 lakh hectares area is under the paddy crop in Punjab which produces around 200 lakh tonnes of stubble out of which Punjab could manage only 45 lakh tonnes and remaining over 150 lakh tonnes is set on fire, said experts.

Around 29 lakh hectares is under paddy cultivation in Punjab, which produces around 200 lakh tonnes of stubble. Only, 45 lakh tonnes of stubble are used and the remaining 150 lakh tonnes are set on fire, experts said.