About 3000 Stubble Burning Sites Present In Punjab & Haryana, Turning Delhi's Air Quality 'Severe'

Despite awareness efforts and a ban on stubble burning, farmers in Punjab and Haryana are resorting to the harmful practice in their farms. This is making the air quality in the national capital region extremely toxic.

According to data from the NASA Fire map, there are still thousands of active farm fires in both states.

According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality monitor SAFAR, around 35 per cent of Delhi's pollution is caused by stubble burning, the season's highest so far.

Extremely calm surface winds on Tuesday night aggravated the problem, it said.

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Northwesterly winds, which are favourable for plume transport, will continue to blow in the region for another two days, it predicted.

"After recovering from firecracker smoke, Delhi's overall air quality has again plunged into 'severe' category. It can be purely attributed to stubble fire the share of which increased to 35 percent today," SAFAR said in a report.

The AQI in Delhi and adjoining areas have been over the 400-mark for days now, due to the Diwali celebration, stubble burning, and unfavourable weather.

AFP

An AQI between 0-50 is considered “good", 51-100 “satisfactory", 101-200 “moderate", 201-300 “poor", 301-400 “very poor", and 401-500 “severe". Above 500 is “severe-plus emergency" category.

The air quality is likely to remain the same at least for a few more days before the wind speeds pick up.?

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh state governments should provide alternate machinery and equipment to the farmers to stop them from stubble burning.?