Stubble burning incidents down 55% than last year in Ludhiana district

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, November 19

In what appears to be a result of the sustained campaign against the age-old menace of stubble burning, the number of incidents of farm fires this year have come down by a whopping 55 per cent compared to last season in Ludhiana district, the administration has confirmed.

As many as 2,619 farm fires — recorded in the district this paddy harvest season between September 15 and November 19 — were 3,152, accounting for 55 per cent, less than the 5,771 crop residue burning cases registered in Ludhiana during the corresponding period last year. Similarly, this year’s figures were 1,655, which accounted for 39 per cent, less than the 4,274 stubble burning cases logged here during the corresponding period in 2020.

Deputy Commissioner Surabhi Malik told The Tribune here on Saturday that the district had fared better than 12 other districts in the state with the stubble burning cases coming down by more than half this kharif season as compared to 2021 and more than one-third less than the figures of 2020.

“We have been running a sustained campaign to aware and educate farmers. We have also been enforcing the laws to check the menace of stubble burning and the efforts have shown positive results with a considerable reduction in the number of farm fire incidents,” she said.

The DC said the drive against crop residue burning had helped form clusters of several villages in Humbran and Khanna this year where not even a single case of stubble burning has been reported during the current paddy harvest season so far.

“The adoption of the practice of in-situ and ex-situ management of paddy straw by farmers is also picking up pace across the district and it will further increase in the coming years,” she said.

Malik said during a visit to Ludhiana and Mangat blocks during the day, she saw paddy straw being set to fire in a field, following which she halted at the spot and convinced the farmer to douse the flames and pledge not to resort to stubble burning in future.

“The SDMs and Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO) have been out in the fields most of the time, making personal interventions to stop stubble burning and motivating farmers to adopt scientific management of paddy straw,” she said.

Malik said a large number of MB ploughs, rotavators and super seeders had been provided to interested farmers in the district to manage stubble. The trials of bio-decomposers had also been conducted in paddy fields at various villages of the district.

“In a one-of-its-type case, a farmer of Sudhar village, Dharminder Singh has collected paddy straw from his fields spread across 12 acres of land to use it as fodder for his cattle,” Malik added.

Air quality improves

With the marked reduction in farm fires, the air quality has also shown a considerable improvement in Ludhiana district. On Saturday, the state’s biggest and largest district, in terms of area and population, recorded an air quality index (AQI) reading of 141, which was considered “unhealthy for sensitive groups”, with PM2.5 concentration 51.7µg/m³, pegged 10.3 times the World Health Organisation (WHO) annual air quality guideline value.

City fifth most polluted

After remaining the most and second most polluted city alternatively in the state for the past several days, Ludhiana was ranked fifth most polluted city in Punjab on Saturday. While Mohali remained the most polluted city with an AQI reading of 171, Faridkot stood second with a reading of 168. Among ten other most polluted cities, Jalandhar was third with an AQI reading of 152, Amritsar fourth with a reading of 141, Patiala sixth with 136, Mandi Gobindgarh seventh with 107, Ludhiana’s another city Khanna eighth with 99, Ropar ninth with 98 and Bathinda remained the tenth most polluted in the state with an AQI reading of 66, figures released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) revealed.

Drive showing results

Our drive to stop stubble burning and promote scientific management of paddy straw has been showing encouraging results with the incidence of farm fires dipping drastically and remaining the lowest in the past three years. Farmers showing the way by saying no to crop residue burning are being felicitated to motivate others to follow suit. — Surabhi Malik, Deputy Commissioner

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