Bathinda: Punjab witnessed 267 fresh incidents of crop residue burning on Thursday, pushing the season's total to 8,986 during the ongoing wheat harvesting season, according to official data.
Highest Single-Day Tally
The state recorded its highest single-day count of farm fires on May 8, with 1,447 incidents. This was followed by 932 cases on May 9, 841 on May 10, 294 on May 11, 74 on May 12, and 424 on May 13.
District-Wise Breakdown
Ferozepur emerged as the worst-affected district, reporting 872 stubble-burning cases till May 14. Other severely impacted districts include Bathinda (724), Tarn Taran (703), Moga (696), Amritsar (675), Sangrur (660), Gurdaspur (587), and Ludhiana (559).
Muktsar recorded 496 cases, followed by Fazilka (401), Patiala (370), Faridkot (349), Barnala (341), Mansa (340), Jalandhar (304), Kapurthala (273), Hoshiarpur (214), and Malerkotla (162). Five districts reported fewer than 100 incidents.
Enforcement Actions
The crackdown against stubble burning continued across Punjab, with authorities registering FIRs, making red entries in land records, and imposing environmental compensation. According to the Punjab Pollution Control Board dashboard, 699 FIRs had been registered under Section 223 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita till the evening of May 13, including 220 FIRs in a single day.
Moga reported the highest number of FIRs at 158, followed by Amritsar (154), Sangrur (71), Patiala (59), and Mansa (57). Authorities have also made 758 red entries in land records and imposed environmental compensation of Rs 83.40 lakh in 1,690 farm-fire cases, of which Rs 5.15 lakh has been recovered so far.
National Scenario
Across the country, Madhya Pradesh reported 335 farm fires on Thursday, Uttar Pradesh 94, and Haryana 11. With 36,537 incidents this season, Madhya Pradesh accounted for over 57% of the country's total 63,902 crop residue burning cases, according to data compiled by the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space (CREAMS). Punjab ranked third nationally with 8,986 cases, behind Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh (15,026).
