Bathinda: The number of crop residue burning incidents continued to increase in Punjab and Haryana, with the two states together recording 661 cases on Sunday. Punjab reported 417 such incidents, pushing the cumulative total for the current season to 2,820. Over the past week, Punjab registered 2,551 cases.
District-wise Breakdown in Punjab
Sangrur remained the worst-affected district with 396 crop residue burning cases recorded until May 3. It was followed by Ferozepur with 313 cases, Bathinda with 261, Tarn Taran with 237, Fazilka with 213, Mansa with 192, Muktsar with 183, Barnala with 147, Patiala with 132, Hoshiarpur with 118, and Faridkot with 107.
Situation in Haryana and Other States
Haryana recorded 244 crop residue burning incidents on Sunday, taking the state's total tally to 2,529. Madhya Pradesh, which leads the national count with 33,329 farm fire incidents, reported 550 cases on Sunday. Uttar Pradesh added 206 incidents during the same period.
The total number of crop residue burning cases across India this season has reached 52,428. Madhya Pradesh accounts for 63.5% of all farm fires, while Uttar Pradesh follows with a cumulative count of 13,707 incidents.
Historical Data from CREAMS
According to the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modelling from Space (CREAMS), Madhya Pradesh has reported over 51% of all crop residue burning cases in the last five years. Out of 2,50,967 cases recorded from 2022 to May 3, 2026, Madhya Pradesh registered 1,28,015 incidents, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 59,698, Punjab with 50,797, Haryana with 12,298, and Delhi with 159.
The Videsha district of Madhya Pradesh reported the highest number of cases at 4,006. A total of 82 districts across Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana have reported over 100 farm fire incidents each until May 3.
Cumulative Crop Residue Burning Cases Till May 3
- Madhya Pradesh: 33,329
- Uttar Pradesh: 13,707
- Punjab: 2,820
- Haryana: 2,529
- Delhi: 43
- Total: 52,428
Legal Action Taken
According to the Punjab Pollution Control Board's action-taken report dashboard, 54 FIRs were filed under Section 223 of the BNS (disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant) in Punjab by May 2 evening. Of these, 18 FIRs were filed on May 2 alone, including 15 in Bathinda.
Bathinda district has seen the highest number of FIRs at 22, followed by Mansa with 15, Kapurthala with six, Jalandhar with four, Barnala and Faridkot with three each, and Moga with one.
Additionally, 113 red entries have been made in the land records of violators, including 54 in a single day. Environmental compensation amounting to Rs 8.15 lakh has been imposed in 157 cases, with Rs 4 lakh imposed in one day.
