Chandigarh, November 27: While eight districts contributed about 75 per cent of farm fires in Punjab; there are about 1,374 villages across the State which have observed ‘zero burning of paddy residue’.
Sharing the information, the state Agriculture Secretary and nodal officer for campaign against stubble burning KS Pannu on Monday said that a special campaign will be taken up in these eight districts next year in collaboration with PAU and NGOs to take farmers on board not to burn paddy straw.
Besides, the campaign would aim at providing requisite machines for incorporating straw into soil. The eight districts include Bathinda, Ferozepur, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Mansa, Moga, Barnala, Sangrur and Patiala.
The state Additional Chief Secretary (Development) Vishwajeet Khanna maintained that majority of farmers of the state have responded positively to the Punjab Government’s appeal not to burn paddy residue, as revealed by the data of Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, Ludhiana.
“The farmers of Majha and Doaba region of the state, barring districts of Amritsar and Tarn Taran, have drastically reduced the incidents of paddy residue burning as compared to the previous year,” said Khanna while profusely thanking the farmers for help in saving the environment, soil and human health, as the air quality in Punjab has remained much better this year compared to previous years.
He said that Ropar has shown the largest decline of 60 percent in crop burning cases this year as compared to the last year, followed by 53 percent decline in SBS Nagar. Similarly, the decline in farm fires was witnessed in Hoshiarpur by 45 percent, Kapurthala by 41 percent, Fatehgarh Sahib by 33 percent, Ludhiana by 26 percent, Pathankot by 25 percent, Jalandhar by 22 percent, Gurdaspur by 14 percent, SAS Nagar by 14 percent, Sangrur and Patiala by two percent each.
Khanna said that the trend of higher incidents of farm fires was mainly witnessed in South Punjab. “Highest farm fires without any decline were seen in Bathinda district (5341), followed by Ferozepur (4895), Sri Muktsar Sahib (4721), Mansa (3578), Moga (3202) and Barnala (2688),” he added.
“Although small decline was observed in stubble burning in districts of Sangrur and Patiala, but the number of farm fires were highest in Sangrur (6828) and was substantial in Patiala (3780),” he pointed adding that together these eight districts contributed about 75 percent of farm fires in Punjab which was mainly attributable to end September heavy rains in the area.
