Thanks to satellite technology, tracking pollution causing illegal stubble burning is apparently proving extremely easy this harvest season in Punjab.

Whenever a fire is noticed by the two Indian satellites "Modis" and "Soumi", they send its image to Hyderabad-based center which then sends the same to a center set up at Punjab Agriculture University, Patiala.

Within no time, with the help of a specially developed software, these images are processed and a SMS as well as an e-mail is sent to the concerned district officials with exact the location of fire – read suspected stubble burning — including latitude and longitude of the place or village.

"Earlier it was really difficult for us to prevent or detect stubble burning as our teams were required to roam around and look for smoke to catch the offenders. But now, it really easy because the satellite images track the exact location and that helps out teams to reach the place quickly," the chief environmental engineer, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) Patiala, Krunesh Garg told The Statesman over phone.

He said as a result of exact location and quick response, 33 cases of fire have been tracked in past three days. Out of this, nine cases – including four in Patiala – were of illegal burning of wheat straw in agricultural fields.

In all these cases, the block level response teams – comprising of a revenue department official, an agriculture department official, a PPCB official and a policeman – have fined nine farmers for stubble burning.

While a farmer is fined Rs.2,500 for stubble burning on two acre land, fine for two to five acre land is Rs.5000 and Rs.5,000 for land above over five acre.

"In the nine cases so far, farmers have been fined Rs.32,000 out of which we have recovered Rs.20,000 from the offenders," Garg said.

The PPCB officials hope this satellite tracking will help bring down stubble burning in Punjab. A campaign has been launched by the PPCB to make farmers aware about the satellite tracking and SMS system which will help authorities track them in no time if they indulged in illegal burning of wheat straw in agricultural fields.

At the same time, PPCB and agriculture department is encouraging farmers to use wheat straw as fodder. "The real use of this tracking will be in paddy season as when instances of stubble burning are lot more than the Rabi season," Garg said adding they farmers will also benefit from the drive as stubble eliminates essential nutrients of the soil.