Wheat harvesting delayed, slow start to straw burning
Bathinda: With wheat harvesting inching closer to its end, Punjab on Monday reported 19 cases of crop residue burning, taking the season’s total of the state to 80, which is just 12.7% of cases reported in the same time period last year.
So far this year, the cases of crop residue burning – an illegal, pollution-causing, but economical practice where farmers burn the parts of a crop which have been left behind after it is harvested – are less when compared to last year. It is believed the number could be less because harvesting has been delayed by unseasonal rain in March and April.
As per Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, against 19 burning cases recorded on April 24 in the ongoing season, there were 56 cases in 2021 and 360 in 2022 on the same day. Up to April 24, the state had recorded 112 cases in 2021 and 628 in 2022.
Of the 19 cases on Monday, four each were recorded from Bathinda and Sangrur, three from Barnala, two each from Mansa, Muktsar and Ludhiana, and one each from Malerkotla and Ferozepur districts.
