Dist logs lowest farm fires in 3 years as kharif season ends

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, December 3

As the paddy harvesting season draws to a close, Ludhiana district has logged the lowest number of farm fires in three years, the administration has confirmed.

The district recorded 2,682 stubble burning cases this season, which were less than half of the 5,817 incidents of crop residue burning that were spotted here in 2021. This year’s figures were also lower than in 2020, when 4,330 incidents had been registered in Ludhiana.

The development assumes significance as the state government recently withdrew its previous order of blacklisting farmers with red entries in their revenue records for burning paddy straw in their fields.

Drive to continue

The sustained campaign against stubble burning will continue in the future to keep a check on environment pollution and to make sure that residents breathe clean and fresh air. —Surabhi Malik, Deputy Commissioner

Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner Surabhi Malik told The Tribune that the sustained campaign against stubble burning by educating farmers and spreading awareness against the ill-effects of putting the crop residue on fire and motivating the stakeholders to adopt scientific management of paddy straw had turned out to be a success. The campaign had resulted in a sharp decline in the season’s farm fires, which were not only the lowest in three years, but also almost 54 per cent less than the 5,817 crop residue burning cases reported in 2021 and around 26 per cent less than the 4,330 incidents recorded here in 2020.

“All-out efforts were made to create awareness and educate farmers. They were also motivated and facilitated to adopt in-situ and ex-situ paddy straw management by providing them requisite machinery and tools,” the DC said, adding that the habitual offenders who had failed to pay heed to repeated requests and warnings had to be dealt with sternly for checking environmental pollution.

CAO Dr Amanjit said this season’s stubble burning cases were also less than the 3,239 farm fires recorded in the district in 2017 and the record high of 7,697 incidents of crop residue burning which were spotted in Ludhiana during 2016.

Jagraon worst-hit

In Ludhiana, the Jagraon block remained worst-hit with the maximum of 547 farm fires while Ludhiana-1 block remained the safest with 45 stubble burning cases being reported this season.

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