Does early harvest, stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana lead to more ‘farm fires’? What Delhi's AQI data shows
HT. Experts suggest that an early withdrawal of the southwest monsoon resulted in early harvest this year has advanced the dates of stubble burning as well. While Haryana has experienced nearly three times the number of farm fires, increasing from 168 instances last year to 542 this year, Punjab has seen only a marginal increase, with 1,388 farm fires this year compared to 1,238 last year.
Delhi's air quality index (AQI) has been in the "moderate" to "poor" categories for the past few weeks. A rise in temperature is also expected due to an approaching western disturbance, which may bring rain on Monday and Tuesday, according to the India Meteorological Department. The peak contribution of farm fires to Delhi's PM2.5 usually occurs in the first week of November as per Data from the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR).
The highest single-day contribution of farm fires to Delhi last year was 34%, recorded on November 3. A professor and principal scientist at IARI and part of the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modelling from Space (CREAMS), V.K. Sehgal said, "Overall, there has not been much of a difference in the farm fires as harvesting began earlier than usual.
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