Haryana clocks 36% farm fires in 14 days

: Haryana saw 36% farm fires of the current paddy harvesting season in the last two weeks, according to official data.

This year, about 36.57 lakh acre area was under paddy cultivation that was expected to generate over 73 lakh metric tonne (MT) straw. The agriculture department had planned to dispose of 31 lakh MT stubble (43%) with in-situ management (machinery/decomposer), while 25 lakh MT stubble (34%) was to be lifted by cow shelters for fodder. And near 17 lakh MT stubble (23%) was expected to be used in the industries via ex-situ management.

Sources say till Wednesday, Haryana had lodged 107 police complaints and first information reports, besides issuing 1,480 challans with ₹39 lakh fine against those responsible for farm fires.

Till November 14, the cumulative number of farm fires in Haryana stood at 1,878, in comparison to 3,128 during the same period last year. Haryana had recorded a total of 3,661 farm fires last year from September 15 to November 30.

The state registered an overall 40% dip in the farm fires this year so far as compared to last year, according to the data.

“Haryana has been successful in bringing down farm fires this year also. As per ICAR data, we have already reduced crop residue burning events by 40% till Tuesday as compared to last year,” said JP Dalal, agriculture and farmers welfare minister, adding that incentive-driven policies of the state government are at the root of Haryana’s success in reducing farm fires.

As per the November 14 paddy residue burning bulletin of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the satellites detected 2,040 residue burning events in the six study states (Punjab, Haryana, UP, Delhi, Rajasthan and MP).

In Haryana, 21 farm fires were detected, while 1,776 were recorded in Punjab, 26 in UP, zero in Delhi, 53 in Rajasthan and 164 in MP on Tuesday.

The bulletin says that a total of 42,360 burning events had been detected in the six states between September 15 and November 14 with total 1,878 farm fires in Haryana in comparison to 28,117 in Punjab, 2008 in UP, 1,366 in Rajasthan and 8,987 in MP.

The ICAR data shows that of the total 1,878 active fire locations detected in Haryana so far, 75 (3.99%) farm fires took place in September after the monitoring started on September 15.

As many as 1,122 (59.74%) residue burning events were detected in October with the highest 576 farm fires taking place between October 21 and October 31.

In the last two weeks of November, 681 farm fires were detected in the state.

The highest single day residue burning events were detected on October 15 (127), and 110 on November 12.

As per the data, the farm fires have come down in leading paddy growing districts. For instance, Kaithal and Karnal districts have reduced farm fires by 61% and 62% respectively compared to the previous year.

The other districts with dip in farm fires are Fatehabad (37%), Jind (34%), Kurukshetra (49%) and Sirsa (44%).

Haryana state pollution control board chairman P Raghavendra Rao said that maximum restrictions are in place in the National Capital Region (NCR) districts as per the stage four of the graded response action plan. He said on Thursday, the Centre will hold another review meeting with the concerned states about the air pollution issue.

The Haryana government on November 3 apprised the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in the NCR about the “stringent measures” taken to reduce stubble burning cases, stating that till October end, 939 challans were issued against violators with fines of over ₹25 lakh.

Officials said the dedicated nodal officers deputed at village and block level in tandem with sarpanches and prominent persons of the area played a major role in preventing farm fires and persuading the farmers not to burn the crop residue.