Unfriendly winds, farm fires spark bad air fears

The Capital's air quality may worsen in the next few days with the number of daily farm fires gradually picking up in the neighbouring states of Haryana and Punjab, and winds beginning to blow towards Delhi and the nation capital region (NCR), according to officials aware of the matter.

- Jasjeev Gandhiok

On Sunday, the daily count of farm fires in Punjab crossed 100 for the first time this season 123 fire counts were captured on Nasa's satellite imagery. On Monday, it recorded another 119 farm fires, taking its total to 456 fires so far this year. The other agrarian state of Haryana has so far witnessed 120 farm fires, including 21 on Sunday and 24 on Monday, according to collated by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in Pusa.

The two states contribute heavily to Delhi's annual pollution woes during the winter season, as northwesterly winds exacerbate the problem by carrying the smoke over a long distance, all the way up to the Capital, shooting its PM2.5 levels to dangerously high levels.

Last year, Punjab recorded 49,922 fires and Haryana 3,661 fires. Both the states have committed to substantially reducing stubble burning in this year's winter action plans, and have also said they will take efforts to eliminate the practice entirely in some districts. Delhi has also prepared a pollution plan for the year, besides having on standby its regulatory measures under the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap).