Deliberating upon the need to apprise people about the environment hazards caused by burning of agriculture residue or wastes in the fields, Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) is organising awareness programmes at the block levels in all 21 districts of the State under a special action plan prepared by the Board to deal with the issue.
“A comprehensive action plan is being followed by HSPCB and an amount of Rs 47.60 lakhs including Rs 40,000 per block is being spent by the Board to conduct awareness or monitoring programmes at a total of 119 blocks. So far, 77 blocks have been covered in the State and all other blocks will be covered in the next three months,” a senior official of HSPCB told The Pioneer.
Signifying the seriousness of the issue, he said: “The burning of agriculture residue or waste in the fields is certainly a major environment hazard causing air pollution, which further results in a cocktail of ash, soot (black carbon), acids and other damaging airborne particles. This harmful airborne particle can cause respiratory disease and also affect the crop yield due to loss of soil fertility.”
“The assistance of sarpanches, panches and other opinion makers in the villages of the State has also been sought by the Board to make all the villagers aware about the risks of burning of wheat stubble, paddy straw in the open fields,” said he.
Giving details of the action plan prepared by the Board, he said: “Drama or skits are being organised during the awareness programmes for sarpanches, panches, lamberdar and farmers at the block level.”
He said: “The Board is also making efforts for getting prepared a short film showing ill effects of burning paddy straw or wheat straw. HSPCB is also apprising the school children during their awareness programme through eco-clubs.”
“Pamphlets and Posters have also been distributed among the farmers at the block level to advice them not to burn the agriculture residue. The posters have been displayed in the offices of deputy commissioners, district rural development officers (DRDOs), block development and panchayat officer (BDPOs), sub-divisional magistrates, gram panchayats and court complexes in the state,” he added.
“HSPCB will also carry out monitoring of ambient air quality in respect to various parametres before the harvesting season and after the season in order to assess the level of pollutants generated during burning of agriculture waste and dry fallen leaf,” informed the official.
To explore the possibilities of use of wheat stubble or paddy straw to manufacture paper, paper packaging, cardboards, Haryana’s Department of Industries is working in this direction. Moreover, efforts will be made by HAREDA to get credits offered though the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to those, who use agriculture waste for briquetting or gasification to generate power.
Taking a serious note of the situation Haryana Chief Secretary Urvashi Gulati recently held a meeting and directed the officers concerned to examine the economically efficient alternatives of burning of crop residues by the farmers to minimise or eliminate their need for field burning of crop residues.
