Choking conditions prevail in eight cities
Deepender Deswal
Hisar, November 3
Choking conditions prevailed in eight cities of the state as the air quality index (AQI) crossed 400 mark in Hisar, Jind, Fatehabad, Faridabad, Gurugram (Gwal Pahari), Rohtak, Bahadurgarh and Sonepat cities today. The situation is no better in Ballabgarh, Kaithal, Kurukshetra and Palwal, where the AQI is in “very poor” category.
No chance of under-reporting
There is no chance of under-reporting of farm fires as the active fire locations are counted using the satellite image of the entire area. There is no manual counting. The images of the farm fires in Haryana and Punjab are captured by the satellite. Dr Sultan Singh, Director, HARSAC
Farm fires continue in the Fatehabad and Hisar region where the harvesting of late-sown paddy varieties is going on. “Farmers are in a hurry to clear the fields to prepare the land for the next crop. In the absence of instant residue management, they resort to burning of stubble,” said an official.
The huge volume of the paddy residue seems unmanageable for farmers as well as the authorities. According to projected figures, Haryana produced about 30 lakh tonne paddy residue this year on about 15.40 lakh hectares. Dr OP Lathwal, Regional Director, Rice Research Station of the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University in Kaul, said one acre paddy field produced residue equal to the grain yield.
Suresh Sihag, a farmer, said the crop residue management (CRM) machines were non-functional in most of the villages. “In the absence of purchases, the machine owners are not interested in preparing bales of the residue as they find it financially unremunerative,” he said. He said stubble burning was rampant in the region.
Ram Kumar, Sarpanch of Jandwala Sottar village in Fatehabad, said after some incidents of farm fires last week, there were no such cases in the village now.
Haryana Space Applications Centre (HARSAC) Director Dr Sultan Singh said there was no chance of under-reporting of farm fire cases.
A Haryana pollution Control Board official said there was little scope for manual manipulation of the data. “Punjab has seen a surge in farm fires, which seems to be the major factor for the choking conditions,” he added.
