Punjab recorded 50 fresh stubble-burning cases on Wednesday, taking its seasonal tally to 454 and leaving the state with the highest number of farm fires among seven northern states, even as authorities intensified legal and administrative action against violators.
The latest cases pushed Punjab ahead of Madhya Pradesh, which had reported 393 incidents, while Rajasthan recorded 229, Uttar Pradesh 190, Uttarakhand 72, Haryana 11 and Delhi one. Together, the seven states reported 1,350 farm-fire cases up to October 21, including 85 new incidents on Wednesday.
The concentration of fires remains particularly severe in Punjab’s border districts. Tarn Taran reported 218 cases and Amritsar 125, making them the two worst-affected districts across the seven states. The figures indicate that the challenge is concentrated in specific agricultural belts rather than being evenly distributed across the state.
Enforcement has included criminal cases, financial penalties and changes to land records. Punjab registered 39 first information reports under Section 223 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which concerns disobedience of an order issued by a public servant. Tarn Taran accounted for 25 of these cases, followed by Amritsar with five, Jalandhar with three, Gurdaspur with two, and Fazilka, Ferozepur, Sangrur and Patiala with one each.
Environmental compensation totalling Rs 7.20 lakh was imposed in 142 cases, according to the report, but only Rs 3.40 lakh had been recovered. The gap between penalties imposed and money recovered shows that enforcement is not limited to identifying incidents; authorities must also complete the recovery process for the measures to have a financial effect.
Land records were marked with red entries in 106 cases. Tarn Taran accounted for 75 such entries, followed by Amritsar with 19, Ferozepur with six, Jalandhar with four, and Fazilka and Sangrur with one each. Warning and show-cause notices were also issued to 152 nodal and supervisory officers, extending scrutiny to officials responsible for monitoring and responding to farm fires.
The increase continued despite a visit by a high-level team from the Commission for Air Quality Management to Punjab. The team directed state officials to make all-out efforts to curb farm fires, placing the latest rise in the context of ongoing inter-state action to address seasonal air pollution across the northern agricultural region.
Data from the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space showed that stubble burning had been reported in 128 districts across India, including 19 districts in Punjab. The figures underline the scale of the seasonal challenge, while the district-level concentration in Tarn Taran and Amritsar identifies the areas where enforcement activity is currently most intensive.
The immediate administrative steps recorded in the report are the registration of FIRs, recovery of environmental compensation, updating of land records and issuance of notices to supervisory personnel. These measures remain the stated mechanism through which Punjab authorities are responding to the continuing rise in farm fires.
