The number of stubble burning incidents in Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and NCR districts of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan since September 15 came down to 6,391 from 13,964 incidents in the corresponding period last year, the Centre said on Monday.

According to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the total stubble burning incidents in Haryana, Punjab, NCR–UP, NCR-Rajasthan and Delhi, during the current paddy harvesting season (September 15 to October 29), reduced from 13,964 in 2022 to 6,391 in 2023, and from 11,461 in 2021 to 6,391 in 2023 — a reduction of 54.2 per cent and 44.3 per cent, respectively.

A series of interventions by various stakeholders, including frequent review and daily monitoring, have resulted in bringing down such incidents significantly in the last two years, it said.

The total stubble burning incidents detected in Punjab during these 45 days is 5,254 as against 12,112 in 2022 and 9,001 incidents in 2021. Farm fire events reported in the state during the same period is 56.6 per cent and 41.6 per cent less as compared to the corresponding periods in 2022 and 2021, respectively.

In Punjab, the single-day highest fire incident count was reported on October 29 (1,068) as against 2,067 fire incidents recorded on October 28 in 2022 and 1,353 on October 29 in 2021.

The five districts of the northern state where maximum stubble burning cases were detected in the current year are Amritsar (1,060), Tarn Taran (646), Patiala (614), Sangrur (564) and Firozpur (517 incidents).

In Haryana, the total number of stubble burning incidents detected are 1,094 as against 1,813 in 2022 and 2,413 in 2021.The farm fire events reported during the current year is 39.7 per cent and 54.7 per cent less as compared to the corresponding periods in 2022 and 2021, respectively.

The single-day highest fire count during in the state was reported on October 15 (127) as against 250 incidents reported on October 24 in 2022 and 363 reported on October 15 in 2021.

The five districts where maximum stubble burning was detected in Haryana are Fatehabad (180), Kaithal (151), Ambala (147), Jind (132) and Kurukshetra (120).

The central government has so far released funds to the tune of about Rs 3,333 crore, under the crop residue management scheme, to Punjab, NCR states and GNCTD for subsidised procurement of machines by individual farmers/custom hiring centres and cooperatives, to facilitate in-situ management of paddy straw as also for baling/raking machines and equipment to facilitate ex-situ applications.

The total number of crop residue management (CRM) machines available in Punjab are 1,17,672, Haryana 80,071 and in UP-NCR 7,986.  Additionally, efforts are on to procure 23,000 CRM machines in Punjab, 7,572 in Haryana and 595 machines in Uttar Pradesh to augment availability during the current harvesting season.

Having said that, there has been a sudden spike in stubble burning cases in Punjab during the last few days and harvesting is expected to peak in the next couple of weeks.

The Punjab and Haryana governments have, therefore, been advised by the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) to mobilize their respective state administrative machineries to take all preventive and corrective measures for control of stubble burning.

The Commission has been reviewing the implementation of action plans for control of stubble burning cases in Punjab and NCR states on a regular basis.