Monitoring and Analysis of Viirs Fire Events Data Over Indian States of Punjab and Haryana

Paddy residue burning is common across Indo-Gagantic plane i.e. Punjab and Haryana states of India. Rice-Wheat cropping system is intensively followed across the Punjab and Haryana. Every year, Rice is cultivated from May to Oct. followed by the Wheat from Nov. to April. Most of the farmers burn the leftover plant debris after Rice harvesting and clear the fields for the next cropping season. The burning of crop residues releases several particles and gases into the atmosphere which causes huge air-pollution. There is an urgent need to monitor such man-made burning to avoid/minimize the air-water pollution. Satellites such as MODIS and VIIRS provide active fire events data daily. We have attempted to analyze the data provided by VIIRS over Punjab and Haryana. This paper attempts to answer a few research questions such as 1. How are the state and zone-wise trend in active fire events cropping seasons of 2017, 2018, and 2019, 2. When is the peak burning period across Punjab and Haryana during 2017, 2018 and 2019 and 3. What is the district-wise percent change in burning across Punjab and Haryana. Our analysis shows that overall burning reduces by 22% in Punjab compared to both 2017 and 2018 and 49% and 61 % in Haryana. Malwa region of Punjab and Hissar division of Haryana was more prone to burning. We have observed that 26 Oct. to 8 Nov. is a peak time of burning in Punjab, however, maximum burning observed during 26 Oct. to 1 Nov. in Haryana. Maximum number of fire incidences were reported from Fate-habad, Sirsa, Jind and Kaithal, Karnal in Haryana. In Punjab, reports poured in from Sangrur, Bathinda, Ferozpur, and Patiala. This trend analysis of time and location can help administrators to optimize the on-ground human and machine resources.