Farm fires nosedive: Day after 283 cases, Punjab reports only 11

Bathinda: Punjab reported only 11 new farm fire cases on Sunday, a sharp fall from 283 cases recorded a day earlier, taking the season's tally to 9,337.Ferozepur remained the worst-affected district with 893 cases till May 17, followed by Bathinda (738), Moga (726), Tarn Taran (712), Amritsar (693), Sangrur (674), Gurdaspur (617) and Ludhiana (596).Legal action against farmers continued, including registration of FIRs, red entries in land records and imposition of environmental compensation.Among other states, Madhya Pradesh reported 188 farm fires and Uttar Pradesh 80 during the day.The total number of farm fire cases during the wheat harvesting season crossed 65,000, reaching 65,234. Madhya Pradesh alone accounted for 37,205 cases.According to the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space (CREAMS), Punjab has reported 57,314 crop residue burning cases since 2022.Box31 FIRs, Rs 91.5L penalty imposed According to the Punjab Pollution Control Board dashboard, 731 FIRs had been registered under Section 223 of BNS in Punjab till May 15.Authorities also made 780 red entries in land records and imposed environmental compensation of Rs 91.5 lakh in 1,950 farm fire cases. Of this, Rs 5.5 lakh has been recovered so far.