Bathinda: Punjab recorded a sharp surge in farm fires with 440 fresh stubble burning cases reported on Thursday, taking the state’s total count to 2,787 and accounting for nearly half of all farm fire incidents across seven states till Nov 5.According to data, Punjab accounts for 49.4% of the total 5,637 farm fires registered across seven tracking states. Over 70% of Punjab’s total cases—1,974 out of 2,787—were reported in the last eight days alone.Daily figures highlight the sudden spike: 440 cases on Nov 5, 151 on Nov 4, 584 on Nov 3, 98 on Nov 2, 175 on Nov 1, 292 on Oct 31, 40 on Oct 30, and 194 on Oct 29.Among the seven states, Madhya Pradesh ranked second with 1,081 cumulative cases (including 216 on Thursday), followed by Rajasthan with 1,039 (90 on Thursday), Uttar Pradesh with 456 (64 on Thursday), Uttarakhand with 192 (9 on Thursday), Haryana with 80 (18 on Thursday), and Delhi with 2 cases.District-wise, Tarn Taran leads the chart across all 168 affected districts in seven states with 586 stubble burning cases. Ferozepur ranks second with 361 cases.Other key Punjab districts in the national top-10 list include Sangrur at 5th (240 cases), Amritsar at 7th (221 cases), and Bathinda at 8th (216 cases), trailing behind Rajasthan’s Bundi (299 cases, 3rd) and Baran (274 cases, 4th). Both Sangrur and Bathinda witnessed significant surges over the past two days.Data from the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space (CREAMS) confirmed that farm fires have been recorded across all 23 districts of Punjab out of the 168 districts affected nationwide.To curb the escalating violations, state authorities have intensified enforcement drives across Punjab, registering 647 FIRs under Section 223 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for disobeying public orders. Tarn Taran led the state with 282 FIRs, followed by Ferozepur (98), Malerkotla (41), Gurdaspur (31), Sangrur (30), Amritsar, Jalandhar, and Kapurthala (28 each), Patiala (21), Bathinda (14), Fazilka (12), Faridkot (7), Fatehgarh Sahib and Mansa (6 each), Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, and Muktsar (4 each), Moga (2), and Rupnagar (1).In addition to legal action, environmental compensation totaling ₹40.3 lakh was imposed across 801 cases, with ₹23 lakh realised on the spot. Authorities also flagged revenue records by entering red entries in 723 cases, including Tarn Taran (282), Ferozepur (124), Amritsar (89), Kapurthala (38), Sangrur (30), Jalandhar (28), Gurdaspur (19), Ludhiana (17), Barnala (15), Bathinda (14), Malerkotla (13), Patiala (10), Fatehgarh Sahib (8), Faridkot (7), Mansa (6), Muktsar (5), and one each in Jalandhar and Rupnagar. To enforce strict official accountability, warning and show-cause notices were served to 689 nodal and supervisory officers for lapses in monitoring.
