'Farmers burning stubble after 4 pm': SC orders 24x7 data on stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana
Supreme Court on Thursday ordered 24x7 data on stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana after farmers began timing crop burning with NASA satellites passing over the region.
PTC News Desk: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered 24x7 data on stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana after farmers began timing crop burning with NASA satellites passing over the region.
The Supreme Court stated that the situation must be regularly watched because farmers are burning their crops after 4 p.m. when NASA satellites fly over the subcontinent. This resulted in a serious undercount of crop burning data, particularly in Punjab, with the Centre of Air Quality Management (CAQM) reporting a 70% fall in numbers.
The Supreme Court stated that state authorities cannot advise farmers to take advantage of the fact that activities are now being discovered during a few hours of the day, and it orders the Punjab government to promptly warn all officers not to engage in such activities.
India now monitors farm fires using data from NASA satellites that pass over Punjab and Haryana twice daily. According to the CAQM, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was ordered in January to set up a system for studying burnt areas and counting farm fires.
Despite Supreme Court directives and severe enforcement efforts, stubble burning remains a widespread practice in Punjab. Farmers, short on time and resources, find burning to be the simplest solution, while government officials, stuck between mandates and ground realities, either look the other way or deliberately help avoid detection.
Meanwhile, residents of Punjab and Chandigarh are set to experience dense fog with visibility expected to drop below 50 meters as the Meteorological Department has issued a yellow alert for foggy conditions for the next three days. However, there is no forecast for rain during this period.
The forthcoming weather in Punjab and Chandigarh is likely to be dry with no predictions of rainfall. The residents are likely to experience a drop in the temperature with dense fog. According to the Meteorological Department, the temperature will drop by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius.