Punjab and Haryana witnessed the best variety of stubble burning instances of the kharif harvest season to date on Diwali evening.

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Punjab recorded 1,019 incidents of crop residue burning, whereas neighboring Haryana reported 250 instances, a report of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute stated on Tuesday.

Tarn Taran topped the districts in Punjab with 160 farm fires adopted by 97 incidents reported in Amritsar on Diwali. The early number of paddy has been harvested in each border districts they usually have been seeing the utmost variety of farm fires within the state to date. While Tarn Taran now tops the state with 1,194 fireplace incidents this 12 months, Amritsar has reported 992 farm fireplace incidents to date.

Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) chairman Adarshpal Vig stated that the incidents have seen an increase however stay half of what they have been throughout this era in earlier years. Though Vig attributed the decline to collective efforts of presidency departments to persuade farmers to go for in-situ and ex-situ administration of crop residue, it could be talked about that harvest has been delayed in the remainder of Punjab because of the latest rains and incidents of farm fires are prone to decide up within the subsequent 10 days because the sowing window for wheat turns into shorter.

According to the PPCB chairman, Ludhiana, Moga, Patiala, Bathinda and Ferozepur are among the many “most notorious districts” in keeping with statistics of farm fires in 2020 and 2021. Chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s residence district Sangrur was the worst offender in 2020 with 9,705 farm fires, whereas in 2021, it witnessed 8,006 instances.

Bharti Kisan Union, Kadian, chief Harmeet Singh Kadian stated stubble burning would decide up within the coming days. “Due to the delay due to rain in the paddy cropping season, farmers are left with a shorter window to prepare their field for the rabi crops. This will lead to a rise in residue-burning incidents in the coming days,” stated Kadian.

He stated each the central and the state governments have backtracked from their promise of offering money incentives for stubble administration to small and marginal farmers. He maintained that the union will protest any police motion towards farmers burning stubble.

Total farm fires in Punjab until October 24

2022: 5,617

2021: 6,058

2020: 14,805

Kharif season farm fireplace incidents in Punjab:

2016: 81,042

2017: 45,384

2018: 50,590

2019: 55,210

2020: 76,590

2021: 71,304

2022: 5,617 to date