Punjab, Haryana:
Pictures of farming haze were released by American Space Agency NASA. The picture shows that the farmers have started burning the leftover of the crops in some parts of Haryana and Punjab, and to a lesser extent in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
Thick black smoke can be seen in the pictures from September-19. It shows the beginning of the stubble burning problem in the east of Amritsar.
Also some minor fires are visible in the satellite images. As days past by more and bigger clots of thick smoke were caught by the satellite images.
These fires in farmland release toxic gases like Methane, Carbon Monoxide and many other harmful gases in the environment. These pollutants cause intense harm to the environment and to the people who live nearby. The satellite images shows red fire spots in Amritsar and Punjab.
The information of stubble burning was confirmed by Pawan Gupta who is a research scientist at the Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research (GESTAR), Universities Space Research Association.
An official from the Punjab government provided a statement, “If alternate arrangements to stubble burning are not made, pollutants like particulate matters and toxic gases like Carbon Monoxide and Methane could give rise to severe respiratory problems, which will further worsen the COVID 19 situation, as the Coronavirus also impacts the respiratory tract.”
Due to intense pollution caused by the stubble burning process most of the experts are saying that because of the gases, the impact will be huge during the COVID-19 pandemic. The gases released through the burning, they are reaching to the parts of New Delhi, and nearby regions, resulting the sudden increase in the existing pollution levels.
Last year, nearly 50,000 cases of stubble burning were reported in Punjab. Stubble burning contributes about 18 to 40 per cent of particulate matter to the atmosphere in northern plains.