KARNAL: The number of farm fire cases in Haryana is on the rise, as farmers continue to defy the ban. Haryana Space Applications Centre (Harsac) spotted 426 fresh cases of farm fire on Sunday — highest single day surge that pushed the count to 4,199.
The numbers are comparatively higher than the last year’s figure in the corresponding period. Even in 2018, 3,106 cases of stubble-burning were recorded till October 25. The state recorded 1,893 incidents of stubble burning last week (October 18-25), which is around 44% of the total incidents.
According to the data compiled by the Haryana State Pollution Control Board, the maximum (803) active fire locations were reported from Karnal district, followed by Kaithal (730), Kurukshetra
(712), Ambala (549), Fatehabad (362), Yamunanagar (305), Jind (273), Sirsa (128), Hisar
(112), Palwal (67), Sonepat (53), Panipat (33), Panchkula (28), Rohtak (8), Jhajjar (10) Bhiwani (10), Mahendergarh (4), Rewari (4), Faridabad (3), Gurugram (2) and Nuh (1).
A small farmer said the window between harvesting paddy and sowing of wheat is very short and burning the paddy stubble is the easiest and fastest way to prepare the fields for the next crop.
Karnal deputy director agriculture Aditya Dabas said the government is taking several initiatives to curb the stubble burning menace. As many as 15 happy seeders have been provided to farmers of all six blocks of the district.