Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's constituency Karnal leads with 35 incidents, followed by 34 in Kurukshetra, and eight in Panipat.
As smog begins to envelop the northern states, as many as 80 incidents of stubble burning have already been reported across Haryana, with farmers running against time to dispose of 69 lakh tonne of paddy straw.
In Haryana paddy is grown in 13.41 hectares of land, which is half of the total land where paddy is sown in Punjab ( 29 lakh hectares). But, the challenge escalates considering its close proximity to Delhi, where air pollution levels spike everyone during the harvesting season.
Data available with the Haryana Space Application Centre, Hisar, reveals there were a total of 12,965 burning incidents reported across the state in October-November last year, with the highest (4,178) being reported from Fatehabad and another 2,705 from Sirsa.
Despite holding massive campaigns and over 2,900 awareness camps for farmers since April, the number of crop fires does not seem to dwindle. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's constituency Karnal leads with 35 incidents, followed by 34 in Kurukshetra, and eight in Panipat.
Air pollution levels are being monitored in real time and satellite imaging is being used to alert district-level officials to control such incidents. Environmental compensation of Rs 19.38 lakh was collected from 705 farmers found burning stubble last year.
"We have identified the sensitive areas and decided to set up 19 more Ambient Air Quality Monitoring stations in those parts. Apart from imposing fine as per the NGT, we have also announced Rs 50 lakh cash reward to 100 village panchayats which have resolved not to burn stubble," says S Narayanan, Member Secretary, Haryana State Pollution Control Board.
The state has allocated Rs 75 crores for stubble management. "Applications were invited from farmers to avail subsidies on purchase certified machines for straw management. The problem cab ne nipped in the bud, if farmers are convinced to manage the stubble in their field (in-situ) through these machines," says D K Behera, Director of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare.
However, the daunting challenge is to convince farmers to use the additional machinery, which is not only expensive, but time-consuming. "We have merely 20 days to clear our fields for the next crop; it is even lesser for potato growers. We do not even get the deserved MSP for our crop and government wants to burden us with extra cost and additional machinery," says Sahab Singh, a farmer from Kurukshetra.
Out of the 16 lakh farmers in the state, more than 8 lakh farmers are small and marginal, with land holdings of less than 5 acres who cannot afford to purchase machinery. Despite its massive awareness campaign, government has only received 1,160 applications so far from farmers to avail subsidies on purchase of additional machinery, which will soon be deposited in their banks.
Even as focus remains on urging farmers to use the subsidized machinery for straw management, government has also given its go ahead to setting up of Biomass plants in six major paddy growing districts. Each of the 15 MW plant will have capacity to consume at least 1.2 lakh ton of paddy stray, but the proposal is at its initial stage.
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