Farmers burn straw stubble after harvesting paddy crops in a field on the outskirts of Amritsar on Friday. (Ph... Read More

PATIALA: With the winter inversion setting in across Punjab, the air quality index (AQI) in the state reached hazardous levels on Sunday. Patiala and Mandi Gobindgarh struggled with the worst AQI. As a thick blanket of smog covered most parts of the state, the Patiala municipal corporation called an emergency meeting to initiate a special drive against burning of waste in open areas.

The Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC) in Ludhiana, which had not been able to detect farm fires on Friday and Saturday due to a thick blanket of clouds that covered the entire state, on Sunday managed to pick as many as 2,856 cases of farm fires from across the state. Most of these were reported from Sangrur , Patiala, Muktsar, Mansa, Ferozepur, Faridkot, Bathinda and Barnala.

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Statistics showed that till Sunday, a total of 2,672 cases were reported from Tarn Taran, 2,903 from Sangrur, 2,422 from Patiala, 1,524 from Muktsar, 1,447 from Mansa, 1,068 from Kapurthala, 918 from Jalandhar, 1,191 from Gurdaspur, 3,053 from Ferozepur, 1,102 from Faridkot, 1,795 from Bathinda and 1,107 from Amritsar. Last year, till November 3, a total of 25,380 cases had been registered across Punjab and in 2017 the tally was 30,867.

The district administrations have started taking legal action against farmers violating the ban on stubble burning order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on the basis of the data that is being provided by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB).

Meanwhile, the eight continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS) in the state reflected readings that prompted the PPCB to launch yet another awareness drive from Monday onwards against stubble burning. The monitoring station in Patiala showed a reading of 416 µgm/m3 till 5pm, which is the severest in the state, followed by Mandi Gobindgarh, where the CAAQMS reflected a reading of 403 µgm/m3, which was again in the severe category.

In Amritsar, the monitoring station showed a reading of 320 µgm/m3. In Bathinda, the situation was no different with a reading of 300 µgm/m3 while in Jalandhar the residents had to breathe very poor air with the monitoring station showing a reading of 325 µgm/m3. At Khanna, the air quality was recorded at 348 µgm/m3, which was in very poor category, in Ludhiana it was 345 µgm/m3 and in Ropar it was 273 µgm/m3, which was in poor category.

Minimum temperatures in Punjab ranged between 13-17°C. The visibility across the state remained low, prompting the traffic cops to issue an advisory for commuters to drive with headlight on. A large number of people travelled on roads with their faces covered with masks or handkerchiefs, trying to avoid pollutants. Doctors used various social media platforms to advise individuals to stay indoor and avoid to move out in the open, especially patients with heart and respiratory conditions.

Meanwhile, with no place to go, the homeless continued to be exposed to the high levels of pollution with the district administrations across the state asking them to move to the night shelters to protect themselves against the pollution.

What is winter inversion?

Winter inversions is an annual climatic phenomena occurring with the onset of winter in the northern states of the country, in which atmospheric conditions like cool air above, warm air below become inverted. This leads to trapping of pollutants in the lower layers of the atmosphere. Experts depend on rains or strong winds for dispersion of these pollutants over larger areas.

