Farm fire in Punjab, Haryana stokes fear of Delhi NCR smog

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By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, October 11: Farmers have begun setting their farm fields on fire to clear the stubble to prepare their land for the next crops. National Capital Region of Delhi was saved from the onset of smog with divine help as rains lashed several areas for the past few days.

Delhi smog from mid-October till November has been an annual ritual, with all efforts to persuade farmers in Punjab and Haryana to not burn stubble having failed. The NITI Aayog had also commissioned a report, but there have been no takers of the recommendations from either Punjab or Haryana, while farmers find easy to set the farm field on fire to clear the land of the crop residues.

While Punjab and Haryana are largely plain areas and the wind helps the states to escape the fury of smog, the national capital on account of the topography becomes the victim of trapped smoke in the air for several weeks, leaving the people with cough, burning sensation in eyes, skin irritation and other related ailments.

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav on Tuesday held a virtual meeting with the Environment Ministers of NCR States, including Delhi and Punjab to take a stock of the steps being taken to manage the issue of air pollution. The meeting was attended by Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister of Haryana, Hemaram Choudhary, Rajasthan, Gopal Rai, Delhi, Arun Kumar, Uttar Pradesh and Gurmeet Singh Meet, Punjab.

“The major sectors discussed in the meeting included agricultural stubble burning, industrial pollution, pollution from diesel generator sets, vehicular pollution, electric mobility, dust from road and open areas and dust from construction and demolition activity,” said the government in an official statement. The estimated paddy straw generation figures was provided by the States during the meeting, which could indicate the scale of stubble burning by the farmers in Haryana and Punjab.

“The state governments informed that they have involved the local bodies and are innovatively providing the machinery to the farmers to promote in-situ methods of handling crop residue. Expansion of area under bio-decomposers as an important strategy towards in-situ stubble management was also discussed in the meeting. The states informed about the progress in the ex-situ crop residue management and activities undertaken to promote alternate usage of paddy straw as an economic resource,” added the Ministry of Environment.