As many as 987 cases of stubble burning have been reported in the state of Punjab till October 13. This data was revealed by Punjab Pollution Control Board. Amritsar and Tarn Taran have turned out to be the hotspots of cases of burning stubble by the farmers. Both districts have had more than 200 cases till now.
Everyday data related to stubble burning in Punjab is revealed but the question that raises is about how reliable is the data that is reaching out to the people. Almost every person has a question springing up in the mind what is the process followed to fact-check the data as it is not possible to keep a record of each and every stubble-burning case in the state?
While giving an insight into how the data is calculated, official from Punjab Pollution Control Board revealed that the Punjab Pollution Control board along with the help of the Punjab Remote Sensing Center situated in Ludhiana work towards finding out the real-time number of stubble burning cases. The Remote Sensing Center with the help of satellites finds out where all the land is being burnt. It gets all the images related to any kind of land being burnt in different parts of the state.
Post, receiving all the information, the center provides the number of cases reported by the images to the officials of the district, after which the officials have certain people assigned who physically go to the areas mentioned and report whether the case is of stubble burning or any other kind.
As soon as all the cases of stubble burning get verified, a probe is initiated by the district officials to take action against those who are found guilty. Different strategies depending on the cities are also formed to curb stubble-burning activities.
Till now no serious step has been taken by the present government to find a solution to this problem or provide farmers with an alternative even though the state is seeing a notable amount of increase in cases . The fact cannot be denied that the problem of stubble burning is serious in Punjab as it deteriorated the air quality and poses a serious threat to the environment.
From all the information that has been received, there should be no doubt about the reliability of the data that is reported as it is gathered by the satellite and physical verification of the same also takes place.