Strict enforcement, less paddy growing area worked to Haryana’s advantage
AREA UNDER PADDY IN PUNJAB IS AROUND 28 LAKH HECTARES AGAINST HARYANA’S 13 LAKH HECTARES
CHANDIGARH/KARNAL: Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday tweeted a satellite image comparing the number of live fire locations in Haryana with Punjab.
The idea was to show that Haryana was way behind Punjab with 4,415 active fire spots due to stubble burning while the latter had 25,949. Haryana has in fact seen lesser farm fires this year at 4,415 (till Monday) as compared to 5,567 reported in the corresponding period last year, agriculture department officials said.
An official spokesperson said that area under stubble burning in Haryana has seen 34% reduction this year as compared to the corresponding period in 2018. The spokesperson said that crop residue burning was reported on about 38,000 hectares this year as compared to 57,000 hectares in 2018.
Haryana pollution control board member secretary S Narayanan said more than 500 FIRs have been registered against those burning stubble in the state. An agriculture department official said they have also recovered about ₹6 lakh in terms of compensation for causing environment damage from the errant farmers in Haryana.
“Stricter enforcement coupled with implementation of remedial measures has resulted in decrease in the number of farm fires this year. About 1,320 custom hiring centres were set up and 4,000 farmers were given machines to manage crop waste,” said the official spokesperson.
However, there are factors responsible for a comparative increase in number of stubble burning cases in Punjab. The biggest reason, farm experts said, is that area under paddy in Punjab is around 28 lakh hectares against
Haryana’s 13 lakh hectares.
In Haryana, of 13 lakh hectares, the long-grained basmati varieties were grown on 6.3 lakh hectares and the parmal varieties, harvested by the combine harvesters, were grown on only 6.7 lakh hectares.
In comparison, the area under basmati cultivation in Punjab was only 6.29 lakh hectares. The remaining 21.5 lakh hectares were under non-basmati varieties which were harvested through combines harvesters. This seems to be the biggest reason behind the farm fires in Punjab, the experts said. “Most of the paddy grown in Punjab was harvested by combine harvesters which is the sole reason behind the large number of farm fires,” said a senior officer of Haryana agriculture department.
As per farmers, combine harvesters leave about 20 quintals of unmanaged residue per acre. As most of the small and marginal farmers do not have implements to manage crop waste, they prefer to burn it — a quick and cheap way to get rid of crop residue.
Following shortage of labourers, farmers in Punjab preferred mechanical harvesting using combines, which costs less than manual harvesting.
As per agriculture experts, another reason behind uncontrolled farm fires in Punjab is the active farmer unions. They extend support to the errant farmers, the experts said, adding that there have been instances where farmers shared live videos of residue burning, challenging the authorities to take action against them.