Stubble burning starts in NCR, cases less this year: Officials

NEW DELHI / HARYANA / PUNJAB: The summer stubble burning season has started in Punjab and Haryana and reports of farmers setting fire to their crop residue have already started pouring in.

Officials of various state pollution control board, however, claimed that this year, the number of crop burning incidents appear to be lesser .

“It has been estimated that cases of stubble burning in the current season so far is 50% less than that of previous summer,” said Kahan Singh Pannu, chairman of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB).

S Narayanan, member secretary of the Haryana Pollution Control Board, also said that the situation seem to be better this season as the number of incidents are lower.

Till May 2, 164 cases of wheat stubble burning has been detected from Sonepat, Jind, Pawal and other places in Haryana and around 250 cases have been detected in Punjab in places like Amritsar and Sangrur districts. Farmers are being issued challans for burning crops.

In 2015, the National Green Tribunal had banned the burning of crop residue in Rajasthan, UP, Haryana and Punjab.

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