Farm fires rebound in Punjab, 424 new cases

Bathinda: Punjab reported 424 new farm fires on Wednesday, a rebound from just 74 cases reported a day earlier.With the fresh cases, the state's tally for season rose to 8,719 cases, still far behind Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, which have reported 36,202 and 14,932 cases this season. New cases stayed low in Haryana too, as it got just 27 fresh cases. Its tally rose 3,279.The rise in fresh cases came even as authorities continues to act against defaulters. According to data with the Punjab Pollution Control Board, the state's police force had registered 36 FIRs in a day against those violating the laws on farm fires. In all, 479 FIRs have been under Section 223 of BNS (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) Ferozepur remained the worst-affected district with 845 cases so far, followed by Bathinda (709), Tarn Taran (702), Moga (673), Amritsar (664), Sangrur (654) and Gurdaspur (580).The state has also made 720 red entries in land records and imposed Rs 80.6 lakh as environmental compensation in 1,636 farm fire cases till May 12, of which Rs 4.45 lakh has been recovered.Across the country, 63,195 farm fire cases have been reported so far this season, with Madhya Pradesh alone accounting for 57.2% of the total cases.According to the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling From Space (CREAMS), Madhya Pradesh has consistently accounted for over half the country's wheat-season stubble burning cases over the last five years.