"Stubble Burning After 4 pm": Supreme Court Asks For 24x7 Data On Farm Fires

The Supreme Court said the situation must be continuously monitored since farmers are burning their crops after 1:30 pm, the overpass time of NASA satellites over the subcontinent.

Supreme Court ordered 24x7 data on stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana after farmers started timing the crop burning with the overpass of NASA satellites over the region, a problem first highlighted by NDTV two weeks ago.  Today's GEO-KOMSAT A2 satellite images visually convince of late afternoon burning acticitivities in NW India, avoiding NASA satellite surveillance around 1:30 PM IST @VishnuNDTV@CBhattacharji@parthaabosu@jksmith34@UrbanEmissions@avoiland@moesgoipic.twitter.com/BJsidjNqzy

The Supreme Court said the situation must be continuously monitored since farmers are burning their crops after 1:30 pm, the overpass time of NASA satellites over the subcontinent. This led to a severe undercount of crop burning data, especially in Punjab, while the Centre of Air Quality Management (CAQM) said there had been a 70 per cent reduction in numbers.

India currently uses data from NASA satellites that pass twice a day over Punjab and Haryana to monitor farm fires. The CAQM had said the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was asked in January to develop a system to study burnt areas to count farm fires.