Stubble burning continued unabated in Punjab, with the state reporting nearly 24,000 such cases so far, an official said on Friday.
The incidents of stubble burning have seen a rise in parts of Punjab this year in comparison to last year. However, the area of fields burned has seen a drop of 1 percent so far. Speaking to ANI over the phone, Senior Environmental Engineer of Punjab Pollution Control Board, Gurbakhshish Singh Gill, said that 1,144 incidents of stubble burning had taken place in the state until Thursday and 24,146 such incidents in Punjab.
“We are working in coordination with the government. Efforts are on. Farmers are being sensitised. Our teams are monitoring the situation. We are hopeful of the situation being in our control this time,” he said earlier on Thursday.
He attributed various factors to the deterioration in the Air Quality Index (AQI).
“There are various factors responsible for the deteriorating AQI. Stubble burning is one of them, other is Diwali, transportation and other atmospheric conditions,” he said.
Speaking to the press on Thursday, Deputy Commissioner of Bathinda, Showkat Ahmad Parray said,
“Nearly 1,200 incidents have been reported till now. Last year, it was nearly 900 which has increased this time. But the data that comes to us is not right in itself because there is some period during which the satellite does not capture the incidents. So if there is stubble burning taking place during that period, such incidents are not reported to us,” he said.
He said that a better way to evaluate the stubble burning is to check the area burnt, adding that the number of incidents is “not a right criterion”.
“A better way to evaluate is to see how much area is burnt. We get a separate report of the area burnt. We study it. We do not consider the number of incidents much important,” he added.
