A thick cover of smog and clouds over Punjab is preventing satellites from accurately identifying crop stubble burning sites, the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PSRC) said Sunday, adding that only four such sites were identified across the state on November 2, a figure too low to be true. According to PSRC data, these the four identified sites were in Bathinda, Amritsar and Moga districts. Dense smog has been reported from various locations in Punjab, reducing visibility to a great extent. On November 1, only 337 stubble burning incidents were reported by PSRC. The daily average for the past 10 days has been 1,687 fires. Speaking to The Indian Express, Dr Brijendra Pateriya, director of PSRC, said that due to the dense cloud cover in the past two days, satellites weren’t able to capture fires and the data of only four fires on November 1 may not be the true picture. The total number of stubble fires between September 23 and November 2 this year is 22,458. The figure for 2018 in the corresponding period was 24,414.
