Punjab records 841 farm fires in a day; tally nears 8,000

Bathinda: Punjab continued to witness widespread crop residue burning on Sunday, recording 841 farm fire cases in the last 24 hours and taking the seasonal tally close to 8,000 at 7,927 during the ongoing wheat harvesting season.The state had reported 1,447 farm fire cases on May 8 , the highest single-day tally this season, followed by 932 cases on May 9. Punjab again recorded the highest number of stubble burning incidents among the five monitored states on Sunday.Ferozepur emerged as the worst-affected district with 773 farm fire cases reported till May 10, followed by Tarn Taran (681), Bathinda (676), Amritsar (645), Moga (630), Sangrur (594) and Gurdaspur (568).Other districts reporting high numbers included Ludhiana (429), Muktsar (420), Fazilka (362), Barnala (334), Mansa (311), Faridkot (302), Patiala (293), Jalandhar (211), Kapurthala (201), Hoshiarpur (194) and Malerkotla (129). Five districts reported fewer than 100 cases each.Authorities continued punitive action against violators, including registration of FIRs, marking red entries in land records and imposing environmental compensation on farmers. Till May 8, authorities had registered 306 FIRs, made 503 red entries and imposed environmental compensation of Rs 42.8 lakh in Punjab.Among other states, Haryana reported 95 farm fires on Sunday, Madhya Pradesh 348 and Uttar Pradesh 225.The total number of farm fires reported across states during the current wheat harvesting season has crossed 61,000 at 61,168. Madhya Pradesh alone accounted for 35,440 incidents .According to the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space (CREAMS), which tracks stubble burning across the country, Madhya Pradesh has contributed more than half the crop residue burning cases recorded over the last five years.Of the 2,59,707 crop residue burning cases reported between 2022 and May 10, 2026, Madhya Pradesh accounted for 1,30,126 cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh (60,540), Punjab (55,904), Haryana (12,961) and Delhi (176).