BATHINDA: The crop residue burning have picked up pace in Punjab in the last three days. With 597 crop residue burning events on Thursday, the count reached 4,327, which is still less than the previous year when the crop residue burning cases were recorded at 9,444 on October 21. The firing events in the ongoing paddy harvesting season, however, have well surpassed those recorded in 2019 at 3,584 on October 21.
The crop burning events on Thursday were recorded maximum in four bordering districts with Tarn Taran topping the chart at 162 cases, followed by Gurdaspur (53), Amritsar (52) and Ferozepur (50). Pathankot, which has track record of low stubble burning, has recorded no cases so far. Earlier, 788 burning events were recorded on October 20 and 496 on October 19.
As against 597 burning cases recorded on Thursday, these were 825 in 2019 and 1,379 in 2020 on October 21.
According to agriculture department sources, burning is expected to pick up further as farmers have again started paddy harvesting after facing inclement weather for few days. The bio decomposer trials have not started yet in Punjab despite state government claims that 3,000 trials will be made in the ongoing season to contain stubble burning. As of now, 8,500 nodal officers have been appointed in Punjab to look into burning cases.
