The stubble burning season has come to an end with the cumulative “fire counts” inPunjabandHaryanarecorded by Nasa satellites in September to November being the highest in five years.<\/p>\n
As per data from Nasa’s VIIRS 375m satellite, 86,606 fire counts were detected in the two states from September 1 to November 29, a 7.3% increase over the same period last year.
The data also reveals a sharp increase in burning in Haryana as compared with the 2020 season. The number of fire counts in Punjab this year was 76,680, as opposed to 75,193 last year, and 9,926 in Haryana, up from 5,506 in 2020.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, an analysis done by System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the forecasting body under the Union ministry of earth sciences, shows that the share of stubble burning to Delhi’s PM2.5 in the second week of November (November 9-13) was 30%. The contribution of local sources was 52% and external sources (emissions within 200-km range of Delhi) was 18% was during the same period. However, as the impact of stubble burning became negligible to just 4% in the last week of November (November 23-27), the share of local sources of pollution in Delhi’s PM2.5 rose to 78%, while external sources remained constant at 18%, the analysis noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"