Stubble burning: Punjab records over 73 per cent farm fires in just 9 days, cases may go up

This correlation between paddy harvesting and stubble burning suggests that in the coming days the field fire cases may go up as crop harvesting gets into full swing in the state.

Tarn Taran district, which has recorded the highest paddy harvesting among all the districts in the state to date with over 8.09 lakh tonnes of paddy reaching the mandis, has also recorded the highest number of stubble burning cases (1,034) till October 22.

Punjab has recorded 3,796 field fire cases from September 15 to October 22.

According to Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, Ludhiana, from October 14 to October 22, a total of 2,709 stubble burning cases were recorded which is 73% of the total field fire cases recorded this year.

During these nine days the highest single-day stubble burning cases were recorded on October 22 (582) followed by October 19 (436), October 17 (403) and October 21 with 393 field fire cases.

On paddy harvesting, around 60.78 lakh tonnes of paddy had arrived in the mandis from October 1 – which was the official date to start paddy procurement in the state by the government agencies – to October 22, and out of which nearly 42 lakh tonnes (69%) had arrived in the last nine days as per the records of the Punjab Mandi Board (PMB).

Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts are at second and third spot with 895 and 324, respectively, stubble burning cases. In paddy arrivals too, these two districts followed a similar pattern.

In Amritsar a huge area was under Basmati 1509 which was harvested in September and the paddy was purchased by private players.

The district has already done around 50% of harvesting to date. In Gurdaspur, over 4.60 lakh tonnes of paddy arrived in the mandis till October 22.

Patiala and Kapurthala are at fourth and fifth spot with 246 and 241, respectively, stubble burning cases. With equal harvesting done in the two districts, the quantum of paddy arrivals in the mandis from these two places was also the same.

Similary, Ferozepur and Jalandhar recorded over 4 lakh tonnes each (paddy arrivals) till October 22.

In stubble burning cases also, these districts are at 5th and 6th spot, with Ferozepur recording 187 stubble burning cases and Jalandhar registering 169 cases.

An expert from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, on the condition of anonymity said that it would be difficult to stop farmers from burning stubble which is the easiest and most convenient way for them to get rid of the crop residue.

Meanwhile, in the same period from September 15 to October 22, the state had recorded 5,438 field fire cases last year.

In districts like Pathankot, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Muktsar, Hoshiarpur and Rupnagar, zero, two, nine, 11 and 12 stubble burning cases were reported so far, respectively. And the paddy harvesting is also very less in each of these districts to date.