Updated: October 19, 2020 8:14:07 am
Despite the state’s ban on burning straw, fields have caught fire every 100-200 meters in the Jandiala Guru, Tarsikka, Tarn Taran, Khadur Sahib and Ajnala blocks of Punjab’s Majha belt. (Representative image)
In the late afternoon on Saturday, farmer Bheera Singh and his brother went out to their adjacent fields at Jandiala Guru in Amritsar district with a box of matches. Planting of the early wheat variety will begin in the last week of October, and the brothers only had a little over a week to prepare their fields for the rabi harvest.
Soon, the dry, golden stubble of the 15 acres owned by the brothers was lit with leaping flames, and giant plumes of thick black smoke rose into the air. Farmers can be heavily fined for setting their fields on fire, but the brothers had decided to do it anyway.
“We had a delayed harvest (kharif) due to a shortage of labor (due to the closure of Covid-19) at planting time in June. Now, with only 10 days to plant wheat, we can’t wait in line for a stubble handling machine, ”Bheera shrugged. “This (burning the stubble) is the only way.”
Read | Punjab will produce 15% less stubble this year
Despite the state’s ban on burning straw, fields have caught fire every 100-200 meters in the Jandiala Guru, Tarsikka, Tarn Taran, Khadur Sahib and Ajnala blocks of Punjab’s Majha belt. NASA satellite images have shown large groups of agricultural fires in Amritsar, Patiala, Tarn Taran, and Firozpur in Punjab, and Ambala in Haryana.
The Punjab Remote Sensing Center at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, which tracks satellite imagery of stubble burning, has recorded the most agricultural fires in four years this season. Incidents have increased more than three times more than last year: the 27-day period between September 21 and October 17 has recorded 5,552 fires, compared to 1,695 in 2019, 1,533 in 2018 and 3,822 in 2017.
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As of Saturday, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) had imposed an environmental compensation fine of 25.75 lakh rupees in 961 cases, and obtained 1.25 lakh rupees from farmers. In 822 cases, a ‘red entry’ was made in the land records, which may make a farmer ineligible for government subsidies or loans from public sector banks.
Some 1,171 cases had been assigned for field visits after fires were detected on satellite images. A total of 801 cases already confirmed through physical visits are likely to face sanctions within a day or two.
In Haryana, the state Pollution Control Board has reported 1,710 incidents of stubble burning as of October 15 this year, up from 1,072 incidents in the corresponding period last year.
The impact of the fires in Punjab and Haryana has been visible as a smoky haze over Delhi-NCR and poor Air Quality Index (AQI) numbers. According to SAFAR, the air quality monitor of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, agricultural fires accounted for 22 percent of air pollution in the national capital on Saturday and 17 percent on Sunday.
While the Punjab government’s appeal to village farmers and panchayats has so far failed to stop the agricultural fires, following the instructions of district administrations, the panchayats have started to pass resolutions against burning stubble.
In Pathankot district, 325 of the village’s 421 panchayats have passed written resolutions against stubble burning; in Nawanshahr, 341 of the 467 panchayats have passed resolutions. The resolutions appear to be having an impact: In Pathankot, no fires have been recorded for the past three weeks.
Sarpanch Dev Raj, from Lahri Gujjran village of Pathankot district, said they passed a resolution on October 12 after convincing the villagers, because there was no point passing a resolution if the farmers were not engaged.
Similarly, the panchayats of villages such as Balsua (389 acres of paddy fields), Sukhalgarh (365 acres of paddy fields out of a total of 430 acres of land), Bhoa (950 acres of 1,250 acres of paddy fields), Sultanpur (325 acres), Govindsar (310 acres) Koghra (375 acres) have passed resolutions after entrusting all farmers. So far, no fire incidents have been observed in these villages after the resolutions.
Dr Amrik Singh, Block Agricultural Development Officer, Pathankot, said: “There are around 50,000 hectares devoted to agricultural and horticultural crops in the district, of which rice and basmati are grown on 27,500 hectares, producing about 1 , 3 lakh tonnes of stubble … I have been asking farmers not to burn it. “
If the appeals are successful, it would help prevent the release of 2.2 billion tons of harmful gases into the environment and help farmers save around 5 million rupees which they spend on fertilizers such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potash, He said.
“We are motivating farmers to sell their rice straw to dairy farmers who can prepare fodder with it. A large number of Gujjar families are ready to use this as fodder, ”added Dr. Singh.
About 90 percent of the panchayats in the Ludhiana district have also passed resolutions. Over the past three weeks, Ludhiana has reported 108 agricultural fires, while Nawanshar has reported 15. Several panchayats in Jalandhar have also passed resolutions against burning stubble.
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