Despite warnings, MP sees highest wheat residue fires in country
Madhya Pradesh has reported 31,413 wheat stubble burning cases between April 1 and May 7, surpassing Punjab, Haryana, UP, and Delhi combined. Satellite data from ICAR’s CREAMS Lab highlights a concerning rise over four years. The spike comes despite CM Mohan Yadav’s emphasis on agriculture, raising environmental and policy concerns in the state’s farming sector.
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh has emerged as the country’s top contributor to wheat residue burning this season, recording more cases than Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi combined. Between 1 April and 7 May, the state reported 31,413 incidents — far surpassing the figures from Punjab (2,238), Haryana (950), Uttar Pradesh (11,408) and Delhi (33). The incidents of wheat residue burning in the state have gone up in the past four years. The data, based on satellite remote sensing by the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space (CREAMS) Laboratory under the ICAR — Indian Agricultural Research Institute, highlights an alarming rise in stubble burning in the state, particularly in the wake of a fresh directive from CM Mohan Yadav. On April 24, Yadav said the state was an agriculture-based state.
“If any farmer is found burning ‘narwai’, they will be denied the benefits under the Chief Minister Kisan Kalyan Yojana. Their crops will not be procured at the Minimum Support Price during the following year.” He emphasised that this decision will be implemented from May 1, keeping in view environmental protection, soil conservation, and sustaining land productivity. Year-wise wheat residue burning detected in MP between April 25 and May 7 after CM’s directive against burning crop residue on April 24, 2025 pointed out that incidents have even gone up in comparison to previous years in the same period. The dist-wise classification of data states Vidisha tops in wheat residue burning in India with 4,410 incidents between April 1 and May 7. Union agriculture and farmers welfare, and rural development minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan represents Vidisha constituency in the Lok Sabha. It was stated by the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space (CREAMS) the active fire events due to wheat residue burning were monitored using satellite remote sensing, following the new “Standard Protocol for Estimation of Crop Residue Burning Fire Events using Satellite Data”. The incidents of wheat residue burning in MP are going up over the years. State-wise and date-wise, the number of wheat residue burning events detected in 2022, 2023,2024 and 2025 between April 1 and May 7 indicated that there were 25385 incidents in 2022, 17142 in 2023, 12345 in 2024 and 31413 in 2025. The infamous tag for MP is despite instructions to address the issue from top officials. On Nov 20, 2024 chief secretary Anurag Jain directed that immediate steps be taken to prevent stubble burning in areas surrounding cities by launching a special campaign and enforcing the prescribed punitive measures as per the Supreme Court’s orders. On Feb 21, MP agriculture minister Aidal Singh Kansana said strict steps have been taken to prevent stubble burning in the state. More than 42,500 agricultural equipment have also been distributed to the farmers for residue management in the field itself, which has reduced the tendency of stubble burning. In the past few days, action has been taken for stubble burning in parts of the state including Bhopal and Indore, but the figures of wheat residue burning points that it was too less to address the issue.
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Source : The Times Of India
