Bathinda4 hours ago
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Smoke rising after the fire in the paddy field.
In Punjab’s Bathinda and Mansa districts, there has been a decrease in the incidents of stubble burning after paddy harvesting this year. So far, 880 farm stubble burning cases have been reported in Bathinda. While in Mansa, stubble has been burnt in 522 fields. Last year, 4 thousand 481 cases were registered in Bathinda and 3 thousand 217 in Mansa.
Experts have claimed that the incidents of paddy stubble burning in the region may see a sharp rise in the next few days as the harvesting of kharif crops will pick up in the south Malwa belt this week. It is also being claimed by the agriculture experts that due to the delay in harvesting in the southern Malwa region, there is less fire in the field this year.
On Tuesday, 160 farm stubble fires were reported in Bathinda and 84 in Mansa. To deal with stubble burning, the Bathinda district administration had tied up with district industries, which collect stubble from the fields and use it as raw material in their units.
This has also helped reduce the number of fires in the fields, but the exact picture will be clear only at the end of the harvesting season. The incidents of stubble burning are being detected by the Punjab Pollution Control Board using Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer suite through satellite images. As the pace of stubble burning picks up, it is affecting the air quality, increasing the number of asthma and allergy patients in the region.