Stubble burning at 8-year low, air quality turns ‘unhealthy’ in Ludhiana

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, October 9

In what appears to be the beginning of a sustained campaign against the age-old menace of stubble burning, the crop residue burning is at its eight-year low as only eight cases of fire events were reported in Ludhiana district during the current Kharif season till Sunday, the official figures have revealed.

The drive was evoking massive response from farmers and village panchayats, who were coming forward in large numbers to pledge against the menace, the administration has claimed.

With this, the state’s biggest and largest district, in terms of area and population, has ranked 11th in the state by logging eight cases of stubble burning between September 15 and October 8. While 10 major districts were way ahead from Ludhiana in incidents of crop residue burning during the first month of the ongoing paddy harvesting season, 12 other districts, mostly the smaller ones, have reported less fire events than Ludhiana till Sunday.

Still, the air quality in Ludhiana has turned “unhealthy”, ranking the city second most polluted in the state on Monday.

The district-wise tally compiled by the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, Ludhiana, a copy of which is available with The Tribune, revealed that as many as 92 cases of stubble burning were captured on Sunday, taking the total to 969 fire events since September 15 this Kharif season in the state.

On Sunday, Amritsar reported the maximum of 22 cases of crop residue burning, followed by Tarn Taran 19, Mohali 14, Patiala 13, Kapurthala eight, Ferozepur three, Fatehgarh Sahib and Fazilka two each, Ludhiana, Faridkot and Jalandhar one each while other 11 districts recorded no fire event during the past 24 hours.

The figures since September 15 indicated that Amritsar was the worst-hit district in the state with the maximum of 559 stubble burning cases logged till October 8, followed by Tarn Taran 139, Patiala 64, Kapurthala 58, Mohali 36, Sangrur 24, Ferozepur 20, Jalandhar 14, Gurdaspur 10, Fatehgarh Sahib nine, Ludhiana eight, Barnala and Faridkot six each, Mansa four, Fazilka three, Hoshiarpur, Moga and Malerkotla two each, and Ropar has reported a single farm fire case so far. However, no fire event has been captured in Bathinda, Pathankot and Muktsar district till Sunday.

The comparative figures of previous seven years showed that incidents of stubble burning were much more as compared to this season.

In 2022, as many as 2,682 farm fires were reported in Ludhiana during the Kharif season between September 15 and November 30 while 5,817 fire events were recorded in 2021, 4,330 stubble burning cases were recorded in 2020, 2,532 in 2019, 2,481 in 2018, 3,239 in 2017, and 7,697 crop residue burning incidents were captured here in 2016, which were the season’s highest so far.

On the air quality front, Ludhiana has ranked the second most polluted city with an air quality index (AQI) of 123, among the five cities in Punjab, where AQI was captured by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on Monday at 4 pm.

It has led to poor visibility and an envelope of smog, especially during morning and evening hours. Residents, mostly the aged, patients, children and those suffering from respiratory complications, have reported breathing and uneasiness problems.

While Ropar turned out to be the most polluted city in the state with AQI 164, Amritsar remained the safest with AQI 71. Among others, Patiala recorded the AQI of 113 and Jalandhar’s AQI was reported at 108.

With an AQI of 123, which was considered “unhealthy for sensitive groups”, the PM2.5 concentration in Ludhiana’s air was currently 83.1 µg/m³, which was 16.6 times the World Health Organisation (WHO) annual air quality guideline value.

Positive sign, says DC

“The decline in stubble burning cases is a positive sign and is a result of a sustained campaign underway to check the menace. The farmers were being sensitised to ill-effects of crop residue burning on their fields and human health on a continuous basis while facilitating them with the requisite machinery and other help for scientific management of paddy straw,” said Surabhi Malik, DC.

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