Punjab reports 57 new farm fire cases, Ferozepur worst-affected/tops chart

Bathinda: Punjab reported 57 farm fire cases on Friday, taking the season's total to 9,043. Ferozepur emerged as the worst-affected district, reporting the highest 875 crop residue burning cases till May 15, followed by Bathinda (730), Tarn Taran (704), Moga (696) and Amritsar (676).Authorities continued legal action against violators, including registration of FIRs, red entries in land records and imposition of environmental compensation on farmers.According to the Punjab Pollution Control Board action-taken report dashboard, 727 FIRs under Section 223 of the BNS had been registered in Punjab till the evening of May 14, including 28 filed that day. Moga recorded the highest 185 FIRs, followed by Amritsar (154) and Sangrur (71).The state has also made 767 red entries in land records, including nine on May 14. Environmental compensation of Rs 93.3 lakh has been imposed in 1,889 farm fire cases, of which Rs 5.4 lakh has been recovered so far. Warning or show-cause notices have also been issued to 130 nodal and supervisory officers.Moga, meanwhile, reported 696 cases till May 15, followed by 676 incidents in Amritsar, 663 in Sangrur, 589 in Gurdaspur, 562 in Ludhiana, 498 in Muktsar, 401 in Fazilka, 382 in Patiala, 350 in Faridkot, 342 in Barnala, 340 in Mansa, 304 in Jalandhar, 276 in Kapurthala, 214 in Hoshiarpur and 166 in Malerkotla. The remaining five districts have so far reported less than 100 stubble burning cases.Haryana reported 22 farm fire cases on Friday, while Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh recorded 325 and 106 cases, respectively. The total number of farm fire cases this season has crossed 64,000, reaching 64,412, with Madhya Pradesh alone accounting for 36,862 cases — around 57% of the total incidents reported during the wheat harvesting season.According to the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space (CREAMS), MP has also contributed nearly half of the crop residue burning cases recorded over the last five years. Of the 2.62 lakh cases reported between 2022 and May 15, 2026, MP accounted for 1.31 lakh, followed by UP (61,123), Punjab (57,020) and Haryana (13,081).The highest number of cases — 4,278 — was reported from Vidisha district in MP. During the 2025 paddy harvesting season too, MP topped the list of stubble burning cases, followed by UP and Punjab.MSID:: 131120493 413 |