71% dip in stubble burning incidents from last year
While stubble burning in Punjab continues to be blamed as a major contributor to the dangerous air quality in New Delhi, there has been a 71.37 per cent reduction in farm fires in the state as compared to last year.
The data has been provided by Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Kirti Vardhan Singh, in reply to a question by Members of Parliament Gaddigoudar Parvtagouda Chandanagouda (Karnataka) and Dr Kirsan Namdeo (Maharashtra) during Question Hour of the Lok Sabha today.
The data in the reply revealed that Punjab recorded only 9,655 “paddy residue burning events” this year against 33,719 during the same period between September 15 and November 18 last year. The reduction is more than 80 per cent as compared to the stubble burning figures in 2022 when the total stood at 44,489.
The data has been compiled as part of a standard protocol developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in consultation with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the reply by the Minister of State said. The number of farm fires in the neighbouring state of Haryana have also come down from 3,088 in 2022 to 1,118 this year. Those were 2,052 in 2023. At the same time, the numbers in Uttar Pradesh have increased from 72 in 2022 to 192 this year which is about 66 per cent.
The reply read that air pollution in Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) was a collective result of vehicular pollution, industrial pollution, dust from construction and demolition activities, road and open areas dust, biomass burning, municipal solid waste burning, fires in landfills and air pollution from dispersed sources, etc. “During post-monsoon and winter months, lower temperature, lower mixing heights, inversion conditions and stagnant winds lead to trapping of pollutants resulting in high pollution in the region. This is further aggravated due to the emissions from episodic events like stubble burning and firecrackers. Incidences of paddy stubble burning in the northern states of Punjab, Haryana, NCR districts of UP and other areas impact the air quality in the NCR, particularly in the period between October and November,” the reply read.
