Only 6 out of 23 stubble fires confirmed in Punjab’s Malerkotla

Despite cold response from certain outfits of employees towards calls made by the administration to check violation of guidelines of National Green Tribunal regarding stubble burning, the Malerkotla administration claimed to have succeeded in minimising incidents of stubble burning in the region.

Exhibiting a gross deviation from data on the number of incidents of stubble burning shared by the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC) in Ludhiana, only 6 out of 23 incidents of agricultural waste burning were verified so far during physical verification by nodal officers.

While all the six fires were gauzed as ‘minor’, though it was yet to be ascertained how many of these were accidental or deliberate acts by owners of fields.

Simardeep Singh, Assistant Environment Engineer (AEE), Punjab Pollution Board, acknowledged that information provided by PRSC regarding fire incidents had buttressed the ongoing campaign launched by the administration against the menace of stubble burning in the region.

However, a major fraction of target fields, suspected to be under fire was not found to have suffered fire during the captioned period.

“According to date received from the PRSC, 23 fields were reported to be under fire on various dates during the ensuing season, but nodal officers on physical verification confirmed on six fire incidents of varied level,” Simardeep Singh said maintaining that geo-tagged photographs in connection with 13 reported spots confirmed that no fire occurred at these coordinates. Though geo-tagged photographs were yet to be clicked by concerned personnel, nodal officers did not notice any fire at four other locations, the AEE said.

Investigations by the Tribune revealed that PRSC’s Crop Residue Burning Information and Management System provides graphical statics and fire event details in tabular form in excel sheet daily to the Punjab Pollution Control Board and the administration on daily basis for further action to check stubble burning.

Though the exact mechanism of the system was not known to the government personnel in various departments, it is presumed that the thermal imagery system through geostationary satellite is exploited to take images with coordinates specifying localities suffering fluctuation in heat.

“Any source producing higher temperature might be mistaken with a field on stubble fire,” said an environmentalist, arguing that deviation in the number of fires reported and verified fires was due to technical limitations of the remote sensing system.

Acknowledging the deviation in number of fire incidents according to PRSC and actually verified by nodal officers, DC Malerkotla Pallavi senior functionaries in various departments had been advised to continue information, education and communication activities to sensitise all stakeholders on the need for strict compliance of guidelines of the National Green Tribunal, besides taking punitive action against those violating the instructions.