Burning green: Health costs of landscape fires

The cascading effects of forest fires and stubble burning on human health and environment are severe

- K Srinath Reddy

A recent report in The Lancet estimated that, globally, around 1.53 million excess deaths occurred each year during 2000-19 due to smoke from "landscape fires", a term for forest fires and dry vegetation, including planned farm fires. The study correlated deaths to exposure to particulate matter (PM) 2.5 and ozone. Cardiovascular deaths contributed 0.45 million and respiratory diseases 0.22 million to this annual toll of where life was snuffed out by the "burning green".