NASA images show fewer field fire incidents in Haryana, says CM Manohar Lal Khattar

Labourer Golu burns stubble at Qadian village in Ludhiana. He says it’s “his routine every paddy season.” (Express Photo/Gajendra Yadav)

Haryana government has claimed that satellite images from NASA have shown that cases of stubble burning have steadily gone down in Haryana over the past few years. According to CM Manohar Lal Khattar, the area under the crop residue burning has gone down to 1283 hectare in 2017-18 in comparison to 2076.60 hectare in 2016-17 (financial year). Khattar, in tweet, also shared the district-wise data of two years to show the trend. In almost all paddy growning areas, the incidents of stubble burning have come down. The area under stubble burning, according to the data, has been shown just 9.8 hectare this year in comparison to 50.4 hectare last year. No case have been reported from Gurgaon and Faridabad districts during both years. However, Fatehabad and Karnal districts are at the top the chart, reporting maximum incidents during both years, but with a slight decline this year.

Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, RK Khullar, told The Indian Express on Thursday that the state government had provided these figures along with NASA images to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday. Kejriwal was here to hold a meeting with Khattar in Chandigarh on Wednesday over the issue of smog in NCR. According to the officer, the comparative figures of stubble burning based on NASA’s satellite images in Haryana and Punjab were also given to the Delhi CM.

“NASA website is open to the entire world… the live fires reported by it can be seen on it. The number of such incidents is steadily coming down in Haryana while it’s same in the Punjab for the past four years. Not even one incident is less or more (in Punjab during past four years),” said Khullar.