BATHINDA: After a brief lull in crop residue burning in Punjab for two days, the incidents resumed on Diwali day, with close to 1,000 cases reported on Sunday.
Following only 6 and 104 stubble burning incidents in the previous two days, the count surged to 987 on Diwali, bringing the total to 24,717. The administration had been actively working to curb farm fires after the Supreme Court expressed concern about the increasing cases in Punjab. Over 200 FIRs were filed against farmers on November 9 for burning crop residue.
Interestingly, Punjab reported fewer farm fires than Madhya Pradesh on the two recent days, whereas on Friday, it had reported fewer cases than Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. Typically, these states lag behind Punjab in terms of reported farm fires.
Despite the recent increase, crop residue burning in the current season is 42% less than the same period last year. According to the Punjab remote sensing centre, out of the 987 burning cases, the highest number (308) was reported in Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's native district of Sangrur. Other affected districts include Ludhiana (143), Bathinda (75), Patiala (65), Muktsar (59), Barnala (58), Mansa (54), Moga (51), Fazilka (50), Fatehgarh Sahib (39), Malerkotla (34), Ferozepur (20), Faridkot (19), SBS Nagar (5), and a few cases in Amritsar, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, SAS Nagar, and Tarn Taran. Crop residue burning was reported in 19 out of the 23 districts on Sunday.
Comparatively, on November 12, there were 987 burning cases, while there were 2,467 in 2022 and 3,403 in 2021. Cumulatively, against the current count of 24,717, there were 43,144 cases in 2022 and 58,976 in 2021 on November 12.
