Islamabad (November 05, 2017): The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) pictures revealed that Agricultural Fires in India caused smog in Pakistan.
Experts said that smog in Pakistan was a trans-boundary phenomenon. The cause for this smog seems to be wide scale crop burning in Indian Punjab.
#SMOG in Pakistan&India is being caused due to AGRICULTURAL FIRES in Indian Punjab
Below is NASA link explaining ithttps://t.co/gabFzGus5b pic.twitter.com/FLeYYWscZ4— Unfeigned (@aiweiin) November 4, 2017
As per reports, farmers burn an estimated 32 million tonnes of the leftover straw to make room for planting their winter wheat crop. This is not the first time that Pakistani scientists have blamed India for trans- boundary pollution . In 2007, the same claims were made. The farmers say that they cannot afford to buy expensive equipment to clear the land so they resort to burning it instead.
Pakistan’s met office department said that rain is the only cure for the smog, which is not forecast for some days at least. This smog in Lahore has already caused counts of allergies, including eye burning and breathing issues.
Experts have revealed that pollution in India is the main cause of smog in Punjab . They said that the fog may persist for another 15 days.
“In India , hundreds of thousands of farmers set fire on rice fields. If you see air quality map recently released by the NASA, a vast area of India alongside Pakistan’s border can be seen all covered in red dots. This pollution is causing smog in Pakistan,” an official said.
According to the NASA, the triangle between Indian states Amritsar, Jalandhar and Bhatinda is all covered in red indicating very bad air quality or high level of pollution . This area is adjacent to Lahore.
Experts said that the smog with a small change in intensity will continue to affect Lahore and other areas of Punjab for another week or two. He said that presently a westerly system was passing through the country and it has caused rain in northern parts of the country and Murree during the last 24 hours but it was very shallow and will pass by Friday night without causing any significant rains. He said that there was still no indication of any rain for other 10 or 15 days.
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