Chandigarh:

Punjab on Friday witnessed the current season’s biggest spike in farm fires with 587 total cases being reported across the state.

According to Punjab Remote Sensing Centre data, 3,537 farm fire cases occurred in Punjab from September 15 to November 1.

Among the districts, Sangrur reported 79 cases, Ferozepur saw 70 farm fire cases, Tarn Taran 59, Amritsar 40, Bathinda 34, Kapurthala 43, Mansa 47 and Patiala 40.

Fazilka, Rupnagar, and Pathankot reported each incident of a farm fire.

The previous highest spike of the current season was reported on Thursday with 484 cases, with Sangrur district reporting a maximum of 89 cases followed by Ferozepur with 65 cases and Mansa with 40 cases.

Notably, there has been a steep jump in farm fire incidents during the past few days.

Punjab had recorded 219 fresh farm fire incidents on Tuesday, taking the season’s count on that day to 2,356.

Paddy procurement is underway in Punjab.

Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana is often blamed for the rise in air pollution in Delhi after harvesting of the paddy crop in October and November.

As the window for rabi crop wheat is very short after paddy harvest, some farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the crop residue for sowing of the next crop.

With over 31 lakh hectares of paddy area, Punjab produces around 180-200 lakh tonne of paddy straw every year.

Punjab recorded a total of 36,663 farm fires in 2023, registering a 26 per cent drop in such incidents.

The state recorded 49,922 fire events in 2022, 71,304 in 2021, 76,590 in 2020, 55,210 in 2019 and 50,590 in 2018 with many districts including Sangrur, Mansa, Bathinda and Amritsar witnessing large number of stubble burning incidents.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)