Farm fire cases may hit 5-year high in Punjab

BATHINDA: With 452 more wheat straw burning cases being reported on Sunday, the total count of stubble burning in Punjab is heading towards maximum in the last five years. The latest incidents push the filed fires post wheat harvest season in the state this year to 13,756 — only 680 less than the 14,436 cases reported in 2017, which is highest in the last 5 years.

The burning cases on Sunday were recorded in all the 22 districts, with maximum 85 recorded in Ludhiana district, followed by 75 in Jalandhar district.

The lowest two cases each were recorded in Barnala and SAS Nagar districts, whereas 3 cases were recorded in Mansa, 4 each in Ferozepur, Faridkot and Ropar, 5 in Bathinda, 8 in Sangrur and 9 in Muktsar district.

According to the data compiled by the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, till now Moga district accounts for the maximum number of cases at 1,224, followed by 1,173 in Amritsar, while SAS Nagar with 37 cases and Ropar with 65 cases are the only districts where burning cases have been in double digits till now.

The field fires are already way past the cases recorded in 2016, when these were 10,732 incidents, 10,907 in 2018 and 11701 burning cases were recorded in 2019. Punjab pollution control board member secretary Karunesh Garg said that fines have been slapped on those found putting fields on fire.