Rain clears air, residents breathe easy post Diwali

Aman Sood
Tribune News Service
Patiala, November 16

All it took to wash away air pollutants post Diwali and over 74,000 farm fire incidents was a good spell of rain.

The air quality has now reached satisfactory level and the smog-like condition, prevalent in the state for the past over a month, has also improved.

On Diwali night too, farm fires continued to add to the already polluted air with over 9,621 cases reported in Sangrur, 7,469 in Bathinda, 6,730 in Ferozepur, 5,704 in Moga, 5,267 in Patiala and 4,800 in Mansa and Muktsar.

The state government has imposed a fine of Rs 2.6 crore of environmental compensation of which Rs 5,72,000 has been recovered.

Punjab is inching towards an all-time high farm

fire count, which has already crossed 73,883 as compared to record 81,000 witnessed in 2016.

Meanwhile, despite rain on Sunday, the day after Diwali, the air quality in Punjab was a poor 304, with Amritsar recording 374 on the air quality index, Ludhiana 345, Mandi Gobindgarh 281, Patiala 269, Jalandhar 314 and Khanna 240. Delhi’s average stood at 435.

However, rain spell for a brief period and windy conditions today ensured that the air quality in Punjab was back to moderate with Khanna being least polluted at 68, Amritsar 104, Ludhiana 103, Patiala 73 and Jalandhar 116 as compared to Delhi’s 221.

“The farm fires are now almost over and barring a few districts with few incidents expected, the air pollution is not likely to rise further,” a top official said.