State records over 15,000 farm fires, Pathankot an exception

Aman Sood
Tribune News Service
Patiala, October 29

Pathankot is the only district which has not seen any stubble-burning case this season even as active fire incidents captured through satellite data on October 28 showed 3,105 active fire incidents in the state, highest in a single day. Though one incident was reported on Saturday in Pathankot, but it came out that it was not the case of stubble-burning, but the BSF officials had set fire to wild grass across the International Border for better visibility. The state has recorded over 15,000 farm fires this paddy season.

Pathankot has the minimum area in the state under paddy cultivation (over 28,000 hectares), but it has not witnessed a single case of farm fire. However, Ropar with 41,000 hectares saw 49 farm fires, while Mohali with 31,000 hectares saw 151 farm fires till October 28. Even Hoshiarpur with 75,000 hectares under paddy has witnessed 189 incidents.

Pathankot has 27,500 hectares under paddy cultivation during this kharif season, including 2,000 hectares under basmati. “A special drive was initiated to motivate farmers not to burn straw by organising awareness camps in all major rice-grown villages. Further, we went to schools and made children aware about ill-effects of pollution. This paid off well,” said Deputy Commissioner Ramvir Singh, who has been leading the drive for the past two years.

“A single incident on Saturday was across the International Border,” he said.

Hundreds in this district have given up on paddy and gone for traditional crops. Mehrakalan farmer Avtar Singh, who shifted from paddy to maize crop, said this was the best decision he took. “The government has just started advocating shifting from paddy to other crops. Maize is bought even before the crop is taken to market as local traders are interested. Further, it needs limited water and labour,” he added.

Harinder Singh Bains, Agriculture Officer, Pathankot, said farmers were motivated to sell their paddy straw to dairy farmers of the area as fodder for their cattle. “Dairy farmers bought paddy straw for Rs 1,000-2,000 per acre for combine harvested paddy and for basmati and sharbati they gave up to Rs 4,000 per acre,” Bains said.

“Moreover, the straw of paddy and basmati is easily digestible by milch cattle. So, it helps in earning extra income for farmers. Our teams worked hard to ensure that farmers are able to sell their leftover straw to cattle farmers,” said Amrik Singh, an agriculture officer.

Farmer Ramesh Chandar Sharma from Gulpur village in Pathankot said they do not burn stubble and instead with the help of administration they had Gujjar community members come to their fields and take away the leftover stubble for their cattle. “In return we make Rs 6,000 per acre,” he said.

Highest stubble-burning cases on Oct 28 

• The state witnessed the worst day on October 28, with 3,105 farm fires recorded by remote sensing centre with Sangrur leading the chart with 481 farm fires. 
• Till October 31, Tarn Taran with 2,166, Ferozepur with 1,635 and Patiala with 1,563 farm fires topped the chart of maximum farm fires till Monday. 
• The air quality index (AQI) in the state was also hit on October 29 with Amritsar 272 AQI, Jalandhar 228, Ludhiana 258, Khanna 211, Mandi Gobindgarh 236 and Patiala 292.